Fanfiction
by MutantLover09
Summary: What if the stories you wrote on Fanfiction actually happened in the DP world? Well, for me, that isn't a question. My name is Sam Manson and this is my story. And believe me, it is the last one I will ever write.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** Well I got this idea from this picture on somebody's profile. It showed Danny sitting at a computer with his face scrunched up in disgust and at the bottom it said Danny found I thought it was pretty funny. This will probably be considered an AU, so take it as you want.

Thoughts are in _Italics. With quotation marks " "._

Sam's actions while typing are in non- _Italics._

Fanfiction: Chapter 1

_Well as you read in the summary this is a story about me, Samantha Manson but if you want to stay on my good side call me Sam But for this story refer to me as Sam Marshall. I have decided to say only my real name not my family's real name. Once you start to read you'll understand the importance of this. But it's not all about me, as I'm sure you're happy to know. Actually the main character would probably be our favorite cartoon halfa Danny Fenton. You see this story is mainly about him. I'm more of a minor character; actually I'm more of a narrator. First things first I really didn't want to write this story, after what I've been through I probably won't ever write again. But I was half pressured into it and half threatened. So here I am about to tell you the story that changed my life forever, and almost ended it. My tale begins as any other normal school day I had just gotten out of school in fact and was on my way home._

Real World: 2:35 p.m.

"_Ahh freedom is sweet,"_ I mentally sighed as I walked out of my high school on a Friday afternoon what could be better? As I'm sure most of you know highschool sucks. And my high school was the king of suck. We were the Spring Dale Phantom's, dumb name huh? I used to think so too.

Anyway, the point is Spring Dale was a place where jocks and airheads ruled.

I'm sure you know what I'm talking about the let's call them "privileged kids," got to do whatever they wanted without any consequences. But I'll stop my rambling's, I'm sure you don't want to hear about me ragging on the "privileged kids" anymore than I do.

I strode out into the fresh clean air of late May and took in a deep breath. The air was cool and clean, even though I was standing mere feet from the entrance to SDHS(Spring Dale High School). It really was a great day, the sun was shining the birds were chirping.

The sound of revving engines interrupted the tranquil atmosphere followed by loud boisterous laughter…and the jocks were roaming free; great.

Did you catch the sarcasm back there? Alright, just checking.

I did my best to ignore the steadily increasing noise and headed away from the parking lot. You see I was a sophomore so I had to walk to and from school. It wasn't really that big a deal, but sometimes you just wished you had a car.

Just as I turned the corner one of the overly large pick-up trucks screeched by me and splashed a huge puddle of water from the day's earlier rain into my face.

It was a times like that, that I wished I had a car. I spat a nasty stream of water from my mouth as more water dripped from my soaked clothes. I glared after the pick-up that showed no signs of stopping and sighed, _"Yep I officially wouldn't mind having a car right now."_

My face was scrunched up in disgust road water does not taste good. Trust me.

You see I wasn't exactly the most popular person at my school. It's not that I was hated or anything I just wasn't in the lime light for anything, unless you counted the occasional poetry contest and stuff like that. But no one really cared about that stuff, except teachers but they didn't really count.

Maybe being a goth had something to do with it.

Now don't get me wrong I did have friends, an awesome group of friends. But I just didn't have people desperately begging to call me an acquaintance. Kind of the same thing with guys, it had taken me fourteen years to get a boyfriend and believe he was a good one that I wasn't letting get away anytime soon. I don't know what I would have done if I didn't know him.

My boots squished with each step that I took and I looked down. My combat boots were completely soaked; I prayed that they weren't ruined. Hey I know they're combat boots but they were special to me. And you don't even want to know how much money they were, believe me.

But thankfully I saw my home rise up to meet me…well home is definitely an understatement. It was more like a giant mansion big enough to fit at least a hundred people but actually only housed my mom, dad, and younger brother by two years.

You see my father is the CEO of a major company; Marshall Corp. He got the company from my great-great-grandfather who came up with the idea to twirl cellophane around deli toothpicks. Yeah, I don't really get it either but it has made us major dinero.

I pulled out my purple spider key chain and unlocked the door, silence greeted me. Of course my family wasn't home, mom and dad worked until about eight-thirty each night and my brother had soccer practice until five.

So it was just me most of the time and being alone in a giant empty house is not fun believe me. I heard loud barking coming towards me from the next room and I couldn't help but grin. Oh and did I forget to mention I had a dog; Diego. He's a miniature pincher really cute and a feisty attitude to rival that of a real Doberman.

I bent down just in time for Diego to leap into my arms, and cover my face with ecstatic licks. "Okay Di, that's enough," I giggled as I set him down. He turned and looked up at me with those big brown eyes of his round and watery.

"Stop with the puppy dog eyes Di," I scolded.

But he continued to stare at me and I knew he had me, "alright we'll go for a walk get your leash." In a flash of black fur he was gone only to return a few moments later his blue leash in tow.

Still giggling I attached it to his collar and walked back out the door. About twenty minutes later we were back and I gave Diego some dinner, he yipped happily at me before digging in. I smiled down at him, it was sad to say but that little dog was probably my best friend. Call me a complete loser but sometimes I swore he could understand me.

Even now if I tell him something he'll actually go and do it…well most of the time anyway.

Finally, now that everything had been taken care of I could get to my passion: writing. I dashed up the stairs and into my room kicking my shoes off along the way. Thankfully because it was so warm out my clothes had dried relatively quickly. Because we all know black absorbs the light, and I had enough black on to make the grim reaper jealous.

When I reached my room I immediately hopped into my typing chair, which wasn't anything special just a four wheeled old gray rolling chair. I then whipped open my Dell inspiron laptop and booted it up.

It dinged a welcome at me before it came to the welcome screen. Without hesitation I clicked on the internet icon and my home page appeared: the world's best fan story website. I admit I was a little obsessed with Fanfiction, especially Danny Phantom Fanfiction's.

And not to mention I had seen every episode of the show and had a link on my laptop to a site where I could watch the episodes whenever I wanted. My friends totally didn't understand my obsession so I kept it mostly to myself.

Now don't get me wrong I was a fan yes but I wasn't a "Phangirl". What I mean is I didn't love Danny with every fiber of my being, I found him an interesting character and that's why he was my favorite. And the fact that he wasn't that bad looking had nothing to do with it.

I hadn't been a member of Fanfiction for long, only since 07-07-07. I wasn't sure if that meant anything or if it was just one of those freaky coincidences but that was really when I joined.

At the time I had only three stories, two of them being one shots, one was about two days in which Tucker couldn't eat meat obviously a comedy. And the other a very short one shot that I planned to make a sequel on was; Vlad finds a portal in the ghost zone leading to the human world. He goes through it and plans to rule the real world.

If only I had seen the signs it's so obvious now but when it was happening. Yeah, not so much.

But my third story had been my pride and joy I only had one chapter done but it had gotten twenty-three reviews. Usually I only got five or ten, so I was very excited as you can imagine.

I clicked the live preview button to read over my story like I always did. Basically it was a fiction with Danny and Vlad as the main characters. Vlad was going to come up with some crazy plot to get Danny as his son. But of course Danny would find a way out of it and Vlad would lose. Short, sweet and to the point. Evil never wins.

Cracking my knuckles I pulled up Microsoft Word and began typing chapter two.

_Danny Fenton walked through the halls of Casper High, head down and shoulders slumped. It had been a long night of ghost fighting and he had gotten barely two hours of sleep. And to top it all off he had three tests today; one in English, another in Algebra, and the last in Life Science. All the courses he wasn't very good at. The boy sighed as he opened his locker and tiredly pulled out his history book._

_It looked like the day was going to be long and hard. "Well at least there aren't any ghosts," he muttered humorlessly. Just as his ghost sense went off, he growled slamming his locker door shut. Today just wasn't his day. _

"Sam," my mother's voice cut into my thoughts.

Causing me to jump in my seat, I sighed. My parents didn't exactly like my writing, actually not like is putting it lightly. How about hate with every fiber of their beings…yeah that's more like it. They liked it when I wrote for school or a contest, but for some reason they couldn't stand it when I wrote online.

Of course I never listened to them and wrote anyway, because it seemed like they never approved of anything I did. They didn't like the way I dressed, they didn't like who I hung out with, they didn't accept who I was. So I figured one more thing added to the list wouldn't hurt.

"Yeah mom," I shouted back, praying that she wouldn't come into my room.

"Honey can you come down here there's someone I want you to meet."

Rolling my eyes I minimized word and slumped downstairs. I saw my mother standing at the bottom of the steps still dressed in her work clothes. What she did I'm still not entirely sure, but all I know is she worked for a big company that specialized in about every industry known to man; ranging from baby products to weapons of mass destruction. When I reached her side she grabbed my shoulders and turned me around.

"Sam this is Mr. Bryant, he's my new boss," my mother said. Her tone nearly screaming, 'please be polite if you want me to keep my job!'

I obliged just because I was well behaved like that. I looked over to Mr. Bryant and nearly gasped, the man was around six feet tall with short gray/white hair and a matching goatee; he looked to be around forty years old. His pale blue eyes bored into my violet ones causing me to shiver. This guy looked like an exact replica of Vlad Masters with short cropped hair!

You can call me hopelessly paranoid but I swore I saw his eyes flash red for a moment. "Uh…uh, hi" I squeaked still a little freaked out by his appearance.

As I'm sure any Danny Phantom watcher would be.

He chuckled and held out his hand, "a pleasure to meet you Samantha," he said in a voice just like Vlad's.

I was pretty sure my eye twitched at hearing my full name, not exactly the best way to get on my good side. Nowadays if anyone so much as calls me Samath-, I pretty much punch their face in.

"Likewise but call me Sam," I countered. Grabbing his hand as tightly as possible.

"I think not," he said in a high class tone not seeming fazed at all by my death grip. "Samantha is proper and a wonderful name for a young lady."

As you can guess this guy had officially gotten on my last nerve, it was insane to even think but he reminded so much of Vlad it was scary. Thinking back on it now I probably should have trusted my instincts and punched the guy out, but back then I wasn't as…aggressive as I am now.

My mom slipped in between us, blocking Mr. Bryant from my suspicious and angry glare. "Uh so I'm going to start dinner," she said quickly before rushing out of the room.

With one last glare at Bryant I followed her whispering rapidly in her ear. "Wait mom, he's not eating dinner with us is he?"

Mom looked down at me while simultaneously pulling out pots and pans, "of course honey that's what I just said."

I stared at her eyes wide; suddenly Mr. Bryant seemed to appear at my elbow dark and ominous. "Samantha you wouldn't mind giving me a tour of your lovely home would you?"

I glared up at him, about to tell him to shove it where the sun don't shine, but my mom intervened. "That's a great idea Vlad, Sam you can start with the basement."

If it was even possible for my eyes to go any wider they would have. "Your…your name's Vlad," I said in a high pitched voice.

Mr. Bryant smiled calmly, "yes, why?"

I swallowed nervously doing my best to hide my rising paranoia, _"there's just no way. Vlad Masters isn't real, he's just some stupid cartoon character. So why am I freaking out? If he doesn't exist why am I suspecting some guy of being an evil cartoon villain? Yeah sure he's a little creepy but evil…no way. And what would I say to him even if he was, 'uh hey you wouldn't happen to be a half ghost named Vlad Plasmius would you?' Yeah that'd go over real well, if my parents didn't ground me forever, he'd send me to the funny farm!" _I did my best to convince myself but a small part of me just wouldn't agree, if only I had listened to it. Then maybe I could have avoided everything that happened.

"Uh, I was just surprised because Vlad isn't a very common name you know," I said quickly my face flushing red. Okay so I wasn't a very good liar, but at least I tried.

"You are right my dear," Mr. Bryant agreed. "In fact I believe I only know one other Vlad, but he's not from around here."

"Where is he from?" I questioned in hopes of gleaning as much information from him as possible. I thought that maybe if he was Vlad Masters then he might reveal some of his secret plot, I know a little silly but I was naïve.

"Oh, out of town you could say." And for some reason he chuckled at this that calm smile never leaving his face.

And if you think he wasn't creepy enough, that laugh definitely did it, it practically sent chills up my spine. After a few moments Mr. Bryant stopped chuckling and glanced down at me, "well Samantha why don't we start that tour?"

I really didn't want to spend anymore time with the creepy man but after a glare from my mother I saw I had no choice. "Yeah, sure um this way," I scurried out of the room wishing I could be anywhere else but here at the moment. Heck I'd even have taken Saturday school over this situation. _"Great spending time with a creepy old guy who reminds me of Danny's arch enemy, life is wonderful."_

Amity Park 2:26 p.m.

Danny Fenton yawned widely as he sat in English, last night had been long. He'd had to fight Skulker who just so happened to have a new battle suit that was even deadlier than it was before, and Danny had the bruises to prove it. After jamming the crazed hunter ghost in the Fenton thermos, Danny had run into the Lunch Lady. It hadn't taken long to catch her but not five minutes after he did he ran into Johnny thirteen and chased him around until six o'clock in the morning.

Thankfully the young half ghost's parents had been convinced by Jazz that he was studying at Tucker's house and would be back later that night. It was at times like that Danny would admit it wasn't horrible to have an older sister. He wouldn't ever say it to her face but he'd admit to himself. Danny's tired eyes closed and he dropped his head quietly onto his desk, after a moment he was snoring quietly.

Mr. Lancer stood over his snoring student and shook his head, the bell signaling the end of class had rung about seven minutes ago and Danny had yet to wake up. Sighing he tapped the boy on the head causing him to snort loudly as he woke.

"Mr. Lancer?" Danny questioned fuzzily, "what are you doing in my bedroom?"

The balding teacher sighed once more, "Mr. Fenton you're at school and my class ended eight and a half minutes ago."

Danny's bloodshot eyes widened and he leapt from his seat but Lancer's commanding voice caused him to sit back down. "Danny," Mr. Lancer started his voice quiet. "What is wrong with you?" Before the teenager could defend himself Mr. Lancer continued. "Your grades have been slipping, you always look tired, and you look like you haven't slept in days. What's going on? Are you alright?"

Danny was surprised that Mr. Lancer, grouchy old Mr. Lancer, was asking if he was okay. He was so surprised he didn't realize he was just sitting there staring open mouthed at his teacher. "Mr. Fenton are you going to answer me?" Lancer questioned sharply.

Danny shook himself and cleared his throat, "nothing's wrong Mr. Lancer." He denied trying his best to sound convincing, "I just didn't get enough sleep last night."

Mr. Lancer eyed his student not buying his excuse for a second but before he could say anything the bell rang signaling the end of school. Danny jumped out of his seat and dashed out the door calling a quick good-bye to his teacher. The dark haired teenager slowed to a walk once he was safely outside of the school, he breathed a sigh of relief _"man that was close. For a minute I thought Lancer would figure something out."_

"Hey Danny," a voice shouted causing the boy to yank his head up. Tucker was standing in front of him, P.D.A in hand, "whoa dude you look awful ghost problems?"

Danny yawned, "Thanks Tuck that makes me feel so much better and yeah I was up half the night chasing Johnny thirteen around." He yawned once more, holding onto his backpack straps tiredly.

"Glad I could help," Tuck said sarcastically before grabbing Danny by the arm and dragging him away.

"Uh, Tuck where are we going?"

"To the Nasty Burger," the techno geek answered immediately a determined expression on his face.

"And why are you dragging me there?"

"Because," Tuck said. "I haven't eaten meat in two days and I think I'm having withdrawals."

Danny raised an eyebrow at this but before he could ask a blue mist escaped his mouth causing him to groan. "Tuck do you have the Fenton Thermos?"

"Right here," he said holding up the cylindrical device. Danny nodded before dashing into an alley, "Goin' ghost!" He shouted as two bright rings appeared at his midsection each going in separate directions changing him from Danny Fenton into Danny Phantom.

The white haired, green eyed teenager leapt into the air a fierce glare on his face. Today was not the day to mess with him. Danny burst through the air ready to beat, whoever was ruining his free time, to a pulp. His ghost sense went off one more time telling him that he had found his free time ruin-er. Danny's eyes widened when he saw who it was; "will you be my friend!" Klemper shouted throwing himself onto Danny and hugging him tightly.

"Ugh Klemper," Phantom shouted his annoyance at an all time high. "Get off me!" He pushed the pajama clad ghost off him tired of having to deal with the annoying ghosts. "**I. Will. Not. Be. Your. Friend**! I never wanted to be your friend! And the chances of me being your friend are never gonna happen! And if you ask me one more time I swear you'll regret it!"

Klemper stared at Danny, his bottom lip trembling, "you won't be my friend?" He questioned his voice thick with unshed tears.

"**No**," Danny shouted his eyes glowing a brighter shade of green than usual. Before the situation could get anymore awkward Tucker intervened sucking the, now in tears, Klemper into the thermos. He stared up at the enraged ghost boy and eyebrow raised questioningly.

"Uh, issues much?" he asked once he had transformed back into Fenton.

Danny shook his head his tiredness returning, "I don't know Tuck. These past few weeks I've been really busy, and with all these stupid ghost attacks I can't get any sleep."

Tucker gave him a sympathetic smile handing him the thermos, "that's okay dude. Who knows maybe you won't run into anymore ghosts and you can have a relaxing weekend." Danny smiled weakly at him as they set off for the Nasty Burger once more.

Once they arrived Danny headed towards the back, while Tucker ran up to the cashier and started ordering every meat product on the menu. Danny put his head in his hands; he didn't even think it was possible for someone to be so tired. Just as he was starting to doze off Tuck appeared at the table and slammed his tray of food down with much more force than needed.

Tucker's tray was filled to the top with every meat item on the menu and he was grinning manically. He handed the young half ghost a much smaller tray, with a Nasty Burger and fries. Danny watched in disgust as Tucker gorged himself with bite after bite of food. _"Suddenly I don't feel so hungry,"_ Danny thought his stomach churning.

After several minutes of disgusting chomping sounds Danny took a hesitant bite of his food Tuck sat back holding his bulging stomach. "Aww," he sighed. "Sweet glorious meat, how could I live without you?"

Danny grimaced looking at Tucker's empty plate, "Tuck no offence but that's kind of gross even for you."

Tucker waved his hand through the air, "don't worry dude its cool."

"Why couldn't you eat meat for two days anyway?" Danny couldn't help but ask as he finished his burger.

Tuck shrugged, "some tradition in my family where you're not allowed to eat any animal products for two days. And believe me Danny it was pure torture."

Danny chuckled as he finished off the rest of his fries; the two teens stood up and dumped their empty trays before walking out of the restaurant.

"Hey cheer up Danny," Tuck said. "It's Friday, there aren't any ghost…_yet_ and we're going to the mall."

"Yeah the key word there was yet," Danny pointed out sourly.

"Chill dude when have I ever been right?" Tucker pointed out walking a few feet in front of Danny. Just as Danny was about to reply screams of terror could be heard followed by a loud villainous laugh.

"And that's why I pointed out the yet," Danny clarified sighing once more. It looked like he wasn't going to have a fun filled afternoon after all.

Real World 6:37 p.m.

"So Sam how was your day?" My father questioned as my family plus Mr. Bryant (insert shiver and grimace here) sat around the dinner table that night. Of course the creepy man, who I eventually found out happened to not be married, had sat next to me. I am still a firm believer that my luck sucks, it did then and it still does now.

"It was alright," I mumbled. Poking curiously at my…I think it was broccoli casserole? Sure didn't look or smell like it. You see I'm an Ultra-Recyclo Vegetarian, which means I don't eat anything with a face on it. So that means no meat and it also means I am pretty skinny, what can I say it is a curse.

"Just alright?" Dad persisted, doing his impression that he had down to a T, of a prying father. I appreciate his ability now, but then it was beyond annoying.

"Yeah, Dad just alright." I shot back resisting the urge to say what I really felt. It was along the lines of, _"actually my day was going great until I had to spend three hours talking to a guy who reminds of my favorite cartoon character's arch enemy. And now he is currently sitting next to me and I feel like he's watching my every move!"_

I still wonder what he would have done if I actually said that to him. I'm convinced that it would have been hysterical.

"Now honey there's no need to get angry," Mom scolded scooping some of the "broccoli" onto my brother's plate. He made a disgusted face at me and I nodded in understanding. I was fourteen and he was twelve but we were still pretty close, we still got on each others nerves mind you, but all in all we liked each other.

"_Really, well I beg to differ,"_ I mentally grumbled. Taking a hesitant bite of mash potatoes, my Mom wasn't a very good cook…actually she still isn't a good cook. But when this happened she was much worse, Diego wouldn't even eat some of the stuff she cooked.

I cleared my throat in hopes of pushing the conversation away from me, "so ah Mr. Bryant you said you just moved here."

The man, who had in fact been staring contemplatively at me (ha told you!), cleared his throat. "Why yes I did, I've only been here for a few months in fact."

"Where did you move from if you don't mind me asking," Dad said.

Mr. Bryant seemed to brighten for some reason, "a small town in Wisconsin." Here I hissed in a breath, but unfortunately I had a piece of bread in my mouth and I started to cough and choke as it was sucked into my throat.

Concerned my Dad started to pat me on the back asking if I was alright. I wanted to tell him yes, but after what I'd just heard I couldn't. After a few minutes I managed to swallow the chunk of bread that had been lodged in my throat, and took a swig of water.

"Cough-cough-I'm fine-cough- Dad-just a piece of-cough-roll." I took a shuddering breath rubbing my sore throat. Believe me that I had hurt, like really bad.

"Are you sure dear girl," Mr. Bryant asked.

"Yeah," I rasped taking another drink of water. I looked up noticing everyone was staring at me and my face turned red. "Uh…please continue," I said addressing Bryant.

"Ah yes," the man said clearing his throat. "As I was saying I came from Wisconsin, but it was a small town and I wanted to see a different setting."

"_So you came to a small town in Illinois?"_ I wanted to point this out, but held it back. We did live in a small town, but it was only about a ten minute drive to a city, so I could understand why he'd move here.

"What did you do?" I questioned trying my best to sound innocent. And if my tone wasn't working, I made my face look as innocent as possible.

He smiled calmly at me his eyes glinting, if I hadn't known any better I would have sworn he knew what I was thinking. "I owned my own business, actually a corporation."

I waited patiently for him to elaborate, knowing that if he said Masters Corp. I'd freak out. But the man didn't say anymore and turned towards my brother as he asked curiously, "Are you rich?" Mr. Bryant roared with laughter.

"Jacob," Mom said her face flushing as well. "That's not polite."

Mr. Bryant held up a hand, "do not worry Amy it is perfectly alright." I twitched at hearing my mother's real name, for some reason it felt really weird to hear a stranger use it. "Well Jacob to answer your question, yes I am rather wealthy. You might even say a billionaire."

"Cool," my brother whispered excitedly. I so wanted to smack him outside of the head, it wasn't like he'd never seen an episode of Danny Phantom. He actually liked it more than me, so you'd think he'd notice the similarities between Mr. Bryant and Vlad Masters. But no! He just sat there grinning like an idiot possibly, at his favorite television hero's arch enemy.

Was I the only observant person in my family?

I didn't realize I had been scowling down at my plate until Bryant spoke my name, (actual my full name). I snapped out of my glare and looked up, "yes Mr. Bryant?" I said sweetly although I was fuming inside.

"What do you like to do in your spare time, do you play any sports?"

The question took me by surprise; I really didn't do anything except write. But I didn't like to tell people about it; I didn't know why but it was kind of embarrassing. "I…uh don't really do anything."

"Except write," Jacob interrupted.

I glared furiously at him, couldn't he just keep his big mouth shut for once!

"Oh really," Mr. Bryant said looking intrigued.

Before I could deny it my Dad spoke sounding proud. "Yes, Sam here won the state poetry contest three years running." And here we go.

"Really," Mr. Bryant said one eyebrow raised. I didn't know why but there was something sinister about the way he did it.

"Yes she even got her picture in the paper," Mom informed pride also evident in her voice.

I wanted to cover my face with my hands but pushed the feelings away. My parents always used to do that and embarrassed didn't even come close to describe how it made me feel. You could say pride wasn't my deadly sin…maybe unrelenting sarcasm. You know if that was a sin.

"Well Samantha it seems that you have a special talent," Mr. Bryant praised me a calm smile still on his face.

I didn't like the way he was looking at me it was kind of dark and sinister, so I turned to my mom. "Can I be excused I'm not feeling so good," I said holding my stomach.

She looked at me uncertainly before saying I could. I was out of there in a blink of an eye running up the steps and back into my room. Once inside I slammed the door and put my back against it my breathing coming in quick pants.

I couldn't believe what I'd just witnessed it had to be some sort of mistake. _"There's just no way, there has to be a logical explanation for all of this; other than the fact that, that's actually Vlad Masters down there."_ I desperately tried to convince myself.

Shaking, I sat down on the edge of my bed, going over the points in my head.

He's around forty years old, with white hair and matching goatee.

He's a billionaire who just happens to call me and my brother by our first names.

He moved from Wisconsin. His name's Vlad.

And he's really creepy!

"_But does that really mean anything?"_ I couldn't help but think, yeah he had those things in common with an evil cartoon character but that's just it. Vlad Masters wasn't real, and even if he was why would he be at my house? It's not like I was the only who knew that he was a half ghost.

"This is stupid," I said out loud. Hey admit it, you talk to yourself sometimes don't deny it.

"Danny Phantom is just a cartoon, cartoons aren't real they're made up. Therefore Mr. Bryant can't be Plasmius." I nodded burning that sentence into my brain. If I wanted to stay sane I needed to remember that.

I was going to go back downstairs but something held me back, instead of getting up I reached for the remote and flipped on the television. A new Danny Phantom came on tonight, grinning I put it on the correct channel and sat back. Just because I felt officially freaked out, didn't mean I'd miss Danny Phantom. That's just crazy talk.

**Authors Note:** And there's the first chapter of what should become an interesting story. Believe me there will be many twists and turns in this tale but hopefully you'll enjoy it. Please tell me it everyone was in character it is very important to me. I can only hope that those of you who read this liked it, and return for the second chapter.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Danny Phantom.


	2. Chapter 2

**Authors Note: **Whoa thank you so much for reviewing. I have one thing to attend to the big question for the last chapter was: Is there a Sam in the DP world also?

The answer is no, the Sam we know is in the Real World. Why? Well if I told you that what kind of author would I be? Where would the suspense factor go? And one mistake to correct here Sam is a freshman not a sophomore, my bad I will try to fix that sometime soon. And sorry for the wait, hopefully it is worth it.

Fanfiction Chapter 2:

_Writing is 1 percent inspiration, and 99 percent elimination: Louise Brooks_

Real World: 1:13 p.m.

"Only two days left of school!" I shouted as I walked down the halls of SDHS with my friends Lisa and Jason. Lisa was about my height and size with red frizzy hair that reached to about her shoulders, today she was wearing a blood red t-shirt that said: Take a picture it will last longer, and a pair of jeans. Jason, well I'll say this about him look up the word gangly in the dictionary and I swear there will be a picture of him. He was about 6'2 with short dark black hair, he had an amazingly square chin and like I said before he was long and tall. He was dressed in a dark blue button up shirt open to reveal a plain white shirt underneath with jeans.

"Calm down Sam," Lisa said rolling her eyes. "We still have all day today and then two more days after that."

I stopped my happy dance and turned back to her a pout creasing my forehead. "Come on Lis like we're actually going to do anything today."

Jason stared at me looking shocked, "whoa did Sam just say something optimistic?" He looked to Lisa his eyes going wide, "Oh no the apocalypse has come hurry to the bunker!" I reached over and smacked him in the arm.

"Ha-ha you are so funny," I droned crossing my arms. Lisa and Jason were going out and I had been sort of responsible for it, what can I say I have a gift for getting people together. But we were all still close just those two closer than most.

Jason grinned at me, "I know I am Sammy-kins." As you can imagine I hated that name, utterly despised would probably be a better term, and Jason knew it as I had explained to him several times before. But he knew how to press my buttons; I still don't know why we were friends.

Before I could retort to that we came to my classroom and I had to say good-bye to my friends, I waved to them and entered the torture chamber. Otherwise known as Geometry class for those of you don't know the hip insiders slang.

I slipped into the classroom and into my seat at the back of the room dropping my purple spider backpack onto the floor beside the desk. You see I never liked Geometry and I had about an eighty-five in the class. Don't ask me how because I couldn't tell you, so I figured why ruin a good thing by paying attention? So I pretty much just stared out the window and came up with ideas for my story. Oh yes did I forget to mention that the dinner with Mr. Bryant had been about a week ago and thankfully I hadn't seen the man again. And I had done my best to push the events from my mind, scoffing at my absurd musings that Bryant was Vlad Masters. It was pretty funny at the time.

Just as the teacher, Mr. Capp, came into the room I pulled out my notebook and started writing where I had left off.

_Danny Phantom landed invisibly in an empty broom closet outside of his history class, the ghost that had set off his ghost sense had been none other than the box ghost. After beating the troublesome ghost to a pulp, Danny had sucked him into the thermos and headed for his class. That had started about ten minutes ago._

_Danny sighed heavily as he changed back into Fenton, he was seriously contemplating whether or not he should go to class or skip it entirely. Skipping was the easier and logical choice but the boy knew if he missed another class it wouldn't be good for him. _

_He had already been tardy at least twenty-five times, and been absent for even more than that. Danny knew that he needed to go to class as much as possible when he could, because ghosts would certainly find a way to make him miss class in the future. With a tired and bedraggled appearance Danny walked out of the closet and into his room._

_The teacher Mrs. Finch turned to him a piece of chalk held in her hand. "Why Danny how good of you to join us," she said clearly annoyed. "Care to explain why you are ten minutes late for my class?"_

_Danny tiredly sat down in his seat, "I wasn't feeling well." He lied having had much practice with stretching the truth ever since he got his powers. _

_Mrs. Finch rolled her eyes but turned her back to the class and continued writing. Danny slumped in his seat feeling tired beyond belief it was at times like these that he seriously considered giving up his role as Danny Phantom. But of course what would Tucker say to that?_

"Sam," Mr. Capp's voice reached my ears and I looked up, hastily stuffing my journal into my lap. Yeah, he probably thought I was writing a dumb note to someone…I hate it when people do that. "I asked what is this triangle?" He pointed to a triangle on the board that had only two equal sides.

"An isosceles," I answered absentmindedly. He nodded and turned to another student. You see the key is to act like you're paying attention so they won't call on you, and if they do call on you if you answer their questions they usually go away.

I decided to not continue writing it wasn't worth getting my book taken away, never to be seen again and I had lost my train of thought anyway. So instead I turned my head towards the window and stared, even though school was almost over to be replaced by glorious summer, they still had us doing work. But Mr. Capp didn't really want to do anything so he was just reviewing what we had learned over the course of the year. So it just looked like we were doing something if anybody was watching.

My sapphire eyes followed a cute little blue jay as he hopped around on the window sill outside of course, duh, and it was at times like that I wished I could draw. But sadly I was only a writer and had no skill in the ways of the artist. I blame my dad, he couldn't draw either. As I watched the bird twitter and fluff out its feathers something caught my peripheral vision, I looked to the spot and only caught a glimpse of a flashing white and red blur.

I blinked completely stupefied, had I just seen what I thought I saw? And what exactly had I seen anyway? I stared out the window hoping to see the thing again but nothing came, _was that what I think it was?_ I shook my head continuing to stare out into the courtyard.

When I saw nothing my mind began to wander again and for some reason it brought up the last glimpse I had seen of Mr. Bryant; it was sometime around eight-thirty and I had just gotten done watching Danny Phantom. Stretching I walked to my window and peered out. Just in time to see my parents waving good-bye to Bryant.

A glare creased my forehead as I watched the man leave, he waved back to my parents and they closed the door. And just as he was stepping into his fancy black Rolls Royce he looked up towards my window as if he knew he was being watched. What I saw caused me to gasp a hand flying up to cover my mouth in shock. Mr. Bryant's once cobalt blue eyes had gone completely red and I could see the red glowing aura from my room on the second floor.

I immediately dived away from the window my eyes wide with fright. When I worked up the guts to peek out the window once more, which was like five minutes later, Mr. Bryant had gone. I had stared at the spot he'd been standing for a while, until I tiredly walked to my bed and collapsed into it, not even bothering to change my clothes.

Yes pure fear can really take a lot out of you, believe it or not.

"Hey Sam," a voice next to me whispered. I looked over to see a pair of blue eyes staring widely at me causing me to grin. It was Shawn, with his short blonde hair spiked up so it looked like he'd stuck his hand in a light socket and bright blue eyes he was pretty good looking. "You okay," he asked looking concerned.

It was then that I noticed my eyes were wide and I could guess that I looked officially freaked out. "Uh…uh yeah," I said having a hard time finding my voice. Shawn arched an eyebrow at me obviously not believing my fib. "Seriously I'm fine," I said forcing my normal gothic air to return, which in other words means I made my self look emotionless.

A skill I learned from the monks in the Alps over summer break…had you going there for a second didn't I?

"Whatever you say Sam," he said looking unconvinced. "Hey did you watch the new Danny Phantom last night," he asked obviously changing the subject. He used to be like that all the time a short attention span to rival an exited puppy. And that was the other reason I liked him, no not the puppy thing, the he was a Phantom fanatic just like me thing. We always discussed the episodes.

And no stop right there those of you in the back who are going "aww" just stop okay. We were not going out and frankly I wasn't sure if he even wanted to go out. Not that I care because we were more of friends than love interests. Even though we hung out all the time and pretty much all our friends had bets on when we would go out, not if. Alright I am just going to stop talking about this okay, no more that is it.

"I thought it was awesome," I whispered leaning closer to him. The episode in question was Identity Crisis and I had thought it was hilarious.

"Yeah," Shawn answered. "This looks like a job for the vacuum cleaner," he quoted Super Danny and I laughed.

"I liked it when Fun Danny was like looks like that guys butt is doing it just fine," we both chuckled at the memory.

"So Sam have you seen that creepy Mr. Bryant guy lately or is he still MIA," Shawn suddenly questioned slightly teasing.

I rolled my eyes you see I told Shawn pretty much everything that bothered me since he was always a good listener. "No, Dr. Wayland but thanks so much for your concern," I said with as much sarcasm as I could muster.

However when I'd told Shawn about Bryant and me thinking he was Vlad Masters the first thing he'd done was laugh, well actually he had almost keeled over from roaring with laughter. Right. In. My. Face. So you can understand why I was reluctant to talk about it. I don't enjoy being laughed at, especially about something so important.

"I still can't believe you thought he was Plasmius," Shawn joked a small snicker escaping his mouth. But after receiving my death glare he quickly smothered his mouth with one hand, making an innocent face.

"If you'd have been there you would have thought the same thing," I said indigently crossing my arms.

"Oh right," he said holding up his hands and continuing in a mystical voice. "Because evil cartoon characters appear in the real world all the time, almost on an every day basis. Like just yesterday I ran into Skulker and asked for his autograph but he told me no." Before he had time to laugh at this he yelped and reached down to rub his bruised shin, where I had just kicked him with my heavy boots.

"And that is why you don't make fun of people with combat boots," I told him sternly.

He groaned and muttered something that sounded like, "stupid combat boots." I nodded in satisfaction thinking, "_he should know better than to make fun of me." _

I patted him on the shoulder, "ah poor baby do you need a band-aid?" I questioned in a baby like tone that made him scowl. So of course I grinned, oh come on you would have too don't deny it.

Shawn glared at me and turned away picking up his pencil to draw again. I was curious as to what he was drawing so I asked, "What'cha drawing." He ignored me pointedly so I asked again, and again I was ignored. Annoyed I glared out the window but after a moment my curiousness got the better of me.

So I leaned over ignoring his protests and snatched the picture of his desk, what I saw made me gasp.

I stared at the picture almost not hearing the end of class bell ring, my mouth was hanging open and I closed it slowly. The picture was of me, my short hair was hanging in my face and I had a thoughtful expression. My eyes, that held a small sparkle, were watching the blue jay as it hopped around on the window sill, I realized that Shawn must have just drawn it and I looked up at him. His face was flushed red as he nervously tapped his pencil on the desk.

I looked from the paper and back to Shawn who was watching me looking embarrassed, "Shawn?" I squeaked completely flabbergasted.

Shawn blushed fervently and took the picture slowly from my hand stuffing it in his backpack. He turned quickly and headed for the door, but just before he left he looked back at me as if he was going to say something. But shaking his head he disappeared out the door with me still staring after him. The way he had drawn me made me look beautiful and the time it must have taken to create it was incredible. No one had ever drawn me in that way; was that really how Shawn saw me?

And if you think this new piece of information wasn't shocking enough listen to this: at the edge of the picture Shawn had drawn on the very corner of the window was something you wouldn't normally see. It was the corner of a piece of fabric, closely resembling something that I'm sure I had seen before but couldn't place. What was it exactly? Yeah right like I'm gonna tell you.

Amity Park: 2:57 p.m.

Danny Fenton shuffled down Auburn Street, one block away from his home, head down and shoulders slumped. His hair was ruffled and unkempt with twigs and leaves sticking out here and there. His clothes were also dirty and soaked in a dark liquid of questionable origin. The dark haired boy was walking with a very visible limp that he was doing his best to ignore. The injury in question was from his recent fight with Ember. Danny had managed to catch the crazed musician after about an hour of fighting, where in the process he had been thrown into too many trees to count and had hurt his leg that was now throbbing with each step he took.

The worst part was that his mother had told him to come home right after school, and now he was, Danny glanced at his watch; at least half an hour late. Danny groaned half in pain and half in annoyance, he couldn't believe his luck was this bad.

The teen sighed as he limped up the steps to his home and stopped at the door. _"It is fine I'm sure mom won't be too upset, I mean this is only about the fifth time I've been late…this week. I am sure they'll understand they're my parents they probably won't even notice I am late." _Danny took one last shuddering breath and cracked the door open peeking slowly around the frame. The house was silent and he couldn't see anyone in sight.

"Maybe my lucks not that bad after all," Danny muttered closing the door quietly behind him. He limped stealthily towards the stairs praying that his good fortune would hold out for a little longer. When he was two steps away from reaching the stairs, feeling that he was in the clear, a shrill angry voice shouted from behind him causing him to freeze mid step.

"**Daniel Fenton,**" Maddie Fenton boomed her hands on her hips.

Danny turned around doing his best to hide his injured leg by leaning mostly on his left leg, "uh hey mom," the boy greeted weakly.

"Young man I told you to come home right after school and it is three o'clock," Maddie reprimanded not stopping to return her son's welcome.

Danny could only stutter as he searched for a plausible response but could come up with nothing. "Why are you late again Danny," Maddie asked her sharp tone dulling a tiny bit. It was then that the woman noticed her son's bedraggled appearance, "honey what happened to you?"

"Oh I was just playing a quick game of football after school and I guess I lost track of time," Danny said the first thing that came to mind. But as the words left his mouth he instantly regretted them feeling like smacking his forehead with his hand, he never played football! _"She is so not going to fall for that,"_ he thought in dread.

Maddie tilted her head, "since when do you play football Danny?" It wasn't an accusing tone just a questioning one; and she couldn't help but think if her son was lying to her.

"I just tried it today because some guys asked me to," the boy replied quickly. "I am sorry mom I was just having so much fun I forgot what time it was," he said, sliding into apology mode. Hoping that maybe he'd be able to squeak by with a small punishment rather than a night in the Fenton Stockades.

"Well I am glad you had fun Danny but that is no excuse for being late," Maddie said. She sighed, anger leaking out of her eyes, she knew her son was as forgetful as her husband sometimes but she couldn't let him get away unpunished. "Now I want you to go to room and think about what you've done," she ordered.

Danny sulkily lowered his shoulders and headed up the stairs leaning heavily on the banister, "and don't go up there and get on your computer young man." His mother added, Danny didn't bother to reply and as he turned the corner he bumped into something solid, causing him to twist his injured leg into a painful position. He yelped and stumbled away from the someone who reached out and grabbed him by the arms so he wouldn't fall.

"Danny are you okay," Jazz asked with concern.

Her brother pushed weakly away from her, "yeah Jazz I am fine," he assured her. He made a move to step around his sister, but she slid back in front of him looking stern.

"Danny don't lie to me I can tell when there is something wrong," she informed with her arms crossed. "And there is definitely something wrong."

Danny glared at her but after a moment his glare fell away and he sighed, "I was late again," he mumbled almost too quietly for Jazz to hear.

Jazz's arms fell to her sides, her expression changing to sympathy, "oh Danny was it ghosts again?" She whispered the 'ghost' part knowing it wasn't wise to say that word too loudly in her home.

He nodded and said sourly, "Ember again. I don't know what the deal is lately there's been more ghost attacks every day and I can barely keep up with all of them and my school work and friends and mom and dad." He trailed off, and Jazz saw just how tired he looked. Dark bags were visible under his eyes that were slightly enflamed and his posture suggested that he'd been on his feet all day.

"Oh little brother I'm sorry," Jazz apologized moving to hug her sibling but he pushed her away.

"If it's all the same to you Jazz I'm going to my room," Danny said limping around her. As he turned around he saw Jazz still watching him concern clear in her gaze, "I'm fine Jazz I just need to rest for a while." With that he closed his door and collapsed onto his bed, not even bothering to kick off his shoes. The boy moaned into his pillows going through the days events in his mind but after a moment decided it wasn't worth it and shut his eyes with every intention of going asleep.

After a few moments he was snoring quietly.

_Danny opened his eyes and looked around, 'where am I' he thought in confusion. He was standing outside of a very large and expensive looking house, or possibly a mansion. The boy took a hesitant step forward only to jump as the door slammed open and a girl walked out. She was beautiful; she had short dark raven colored hair that fell to just above her shoulders. She was dressed all in black with a purple spider backpack. Strangely she didn't seem to notice Danny, even though she was staring right at him._

_The girl took two steps forward just as a woman's voice shouted, "Sam where are you going?" _

"_Sam" froze visibly groaning and turned around as the door flew open again and a woman strode out. She had long reddish brown hair and was dressed in a pant suit type thing. "Samantha where are you going," the woman who Danny presumed to be the girl's mother demanded. _

"_I told you I'm going to Lisa's," Sam said looking annoyed. _

"_No you're not Mr. Bryant is coming over and he said he wanted to see you." _

_Samantha looked appalled but quickly covered it up with a scowl, "well when he gets here you can tell him to call me." She started walking again straight at Danny, who was about to move but when the girl walked into him she went through him, like he'd gone intangible even though he hadn't. _

"_Samantha Marshall stop right there," the mother boomed looking quite fierce. Danny knew he wouldn't want to mess with her when she was angry, Sam stopped and unwillingly turned around._

"_Do you want me to get fired," the woman demanded her hands on her hips causing Sam to deflate a bit. "Sam I don't want my boss angry at me all you have to do is wait to meet him and see what he wants and then you can leave okay?"_

_Sam sighed and muttered something inaudible, "ok-" whatever she was going to say was cut off by the sound of a door closing rather loudly. Danny whipped around only to come face to face with Vlad Masters or at least it looked like Vlad. The only difference was his hair was short and he was dressed in a dark blue suit with a red tie, Danny leapt away from the man his fists glowing green._

_But the man either didn't see him or just decided to take no notice of his actions, "Amy, Samantha good to see you," the man greeted sounding just like Vlad's pompous cocky voice. _

"_Mr. Bryant," Amy greeted trying to look calm, "good to see you too how are you?"_

"_I'm fine enjoying the warm weather," Mr. Bryant answered. Danny watched the man his eyes wary, the guy looked like Vlad and talked like Vlad but there was something off about him. The young half ghost looked around, was he even in Amity Park or Wisconsin? It didn't look like it and there was something different about these people, now that he thought about it everything looked different. There was just something strange about the whole place. And they had called the guy Mr. Bryant instead of Mr. Masters so it obviously couldn't be Vlad. _

_Danny looked curiously back at Bryant, 'Does Vlad have a brother,' he couldn't help but think. Mr. Bryant looked over at Sam, "It is close to summer is it not?"_

_Sam glared vehemently at the man before answering curtly, "yes." Danny liked her immediately whoever didn't like Vlad or the Vlad look alike was already on his good side. Suddenly the scene dimmed and Danny was standing in a dark space with a light shining above him casting dark shadows around him._

_He looked around expecting something to jump out of the darkness and grab him but nothing did. Just as he was calming down a flash of light appeared in front of him and he was staring at what looked like a movie screen, images were flashing across it moving almost too fast to see._

_It showed the girl Sam running from something, her face set in a terrified scream. The scene changed to the face of Plasmius as he laughed hysterically holding something in his hands, Danny could barely register what it was when one final image appeared on the screen. It was himself in ghost form bound in ecto-ropes a glob of green ectoplasm over his mouth, Vlad stood over him a triumphant grin on his face. This time he was holding Sam tightly by the arms as she cried out to Danny what looked like "I'm sorry." _

Danny shot up in bed his breaths coming in gasps as sweat poured heavily down his face he put a hand to his chest forcing himself to calm down. He forced his darting eyes to close and after a few moments his breathing slowed down to normal. Danny opened his eyes slowly running a hand over his face, _"Did I just have a nightmare?"_ He hadn't had one of those since the incident with his future self and that had been months ago.

The raven haired teen glanced at his clock; the green numbers blared out at him 10:02 p.m. Danny let out a shaky breath going, over what he had just seen or dreamed. _"What if this Sam is real? She looked real, but it was a dream so how could she be real I've never even met her. But she looked like she was in trouble and I was somehow involved. So if she is real and she is in danger does that mean I am too?"_

The boy wouldn't normally think so much on a dream but it had seemed so real and for some reason he found himself caring if Sam was alright. There was something so familiar about her that it was almost scary.

He shook his head slowly confusion written all over his face, he needed some advice on what he'd just seen and he knew just the person to ask. Danny transformed and phased himself through his bed and into the lab, without hesitation he opened the ghost portal and flew in. Having no idea that in the Real World Samantha Marshall was waking up from a nightmare about Danny Phantom.

**Authors Note: **Peaks out from under rock Sorry for the wait, don't throw things at me! I truly am sorry but this took a while to write and it didn't help that I was grounded for a week. For a whole different reason this time believe me. So did you like it? I'm sorry if it is a bit dull right now but this requires plot building like you've never seen. A big thanks to all who reviewed for the last chapter and I can only hope you do it again for this one.

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.


	3. Chapter 3

Fanfiction Chapter 3

_The wastebasket is a writer's best friend: Isaac Bashevis Singer_

Ghost Zone: Time Unknown

"_Oh man this was a bad idea,"_ Danny thought as he flew as fast as possible through the ghost zone with a pack of ghosts behind him. Not just any ghosts either they just happened to be Walker's prison guards who had been ordered to bring him in. And he had the pleasure of finding this out not five minutes after he flew into the ghost portal.

"Whoa," Danny gasped as a green beam of energy flashed just over his shoulder. Followed closely by three more shots that the young half ghost just barely managed to dodge by flipping and twisting at impossible angles.

"Surrender ghost punk," one of the ghost guards shouted while simultaneously firing his night stick at Phantom's head.

Danny ducked under the blast a determined glare on his face, _"Oh yeah like I'm actually gonna do that."_ Having had enough Phantom flipped around and fired a large blast of ectoplasm from his palm, causing the pursuing ghost's to scatter in order to avoid the blast. The boy resisted the urge to shout, "How do like that," knowing that it was best to not taunt your enemies when they outnumbered you ten to one. Still facing the prison guards he fired several more blasts and even managed to hit a couple of the ghosts, unfortunately since Danny was facing the ghosts he didn't see another one rise up behind him.

After firing a few more blasts at his pursuers Danny turned around about to make his escape, when he ran straight into the chest plate of a very amused looking Skulker. "Hello ghost child," the hunter grinned as Danny backpedaled away from his adversary. "This appears to be my lucky day, I was just on my way to hunt you but you come to me," he went on conversationally.

"_I wonder if he has 'hunt ghost kid' written down on his daily planner or something,"_ Danny thought despite his situation. "Sorry to disappoint you Skulker, but I'm out of here," the half ghost said and made a move to fly around the hunter but found his way blocked by the ghost guards.

Phantom looked around nervously and saw that he was surrounded by the guards and Skulker; he let hot green ectoplasm leak into his hands that were clenched into fists so tightly he was sure his knuckles were white. More out of fear than anything else, he narrowed his eyes glaring defiantly at the ghosts, refusing to show how scared he really was.

"End of the line ghost punk," a ghost guard said grinning. "Give up now and we will take you before Walker unharmed."

Danny glared at him his green eyes burning, "I don't think so," he snarled. Although he sounded brave on the inside he was frightened, this was a bad situation he was surrounded by enemies in the ghost zone filled with enemies. Even if he managed to get out of this situation he was still in enemy territory, _"This was such a bad idea. Why did I come in here all because I had some stupid dream?"_ His green eyes darted back and forth looking for an escape but he was successfully stuck.

"Yes whelp you are trapped," Skulker chuckled, after noticing his actions, two large guns popped out of both his shoulders already charging up.

Danny's eyes narrowed, he wasn't listening to Skulker's taunts as he was in deep concentration, _"I've only got one shot at this."_ Just as the ghosts advanced Danny opened his mouth and released his ghostly wail. Skulker and the guards were taken by surprise and had no time to get out of the way of the dangerous attack. Danny didn't know how long he held the wail, until the strain became too much and he let it die away.

Phantom held his head as his vision spun and looked around, Skulker was floating several feet away unconscious and in about twenty pieces and most of the ghost guards weren't even in area anymore. Danny grinned weakly at seeing his attackers were down for the count, "That worked better than I thought it would," he admitted in a raspy voice.

After waiting a few moments to recover Danny set off for his destination flying much slower than he had earlier. He swerved around a floating door wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead, _"Man I'm tired I really need to work on my ghostly wail."_ The boy sighed and flew on his arms hanging uselessly at his sides too tired to lift them, not only was he tired from his ghostly wail he was still sleepy from waking up at around two in the morning.

The half ghost yawned widely and blinked a few times to clear his vision, _"Maybe I'll just close my eyes for a bit." _

Phantom let his eyelids droop and the next second he was snoring quietly while still flying, (not exactly a good thing I must say.) The sleeping half ghost floated through the ghost zone until he lost his momentum and fell gently onto a floating piece of barren land where he came to rest amazingly still asleep.

Real World: 3:27 a.m.

I jolted up in bed sweat pouring down my face, plastering my black tank top to my back, my loud breathing echoing throughout my silent room. I put a hand up to my face and felt wetness on my cheeks, my violet eyes darted back and forth and I forced my beating heart to slow down. That dream had been too real way too real.

I'd dreamed of Danny Phantom and he was in trouble, really big trouble. I pulled the covers off my legs shivering a little as my bare skin met the chilly air; I slept in a tank top/shorts set that was of course black and purple with green trim.

Walking lightly I slipped into my bathroom and splashed water on my face placing both hands on either side of the sink I stared at my reflection. I looked paler than usual and my eyes were red and puffy…I stopped and did a double take.

Wait I was crying? All over a stupid dream, I never cried.

Okay I'm going to stop right there for the moment and clear a few things up, number one the reason finding out I was crying was a big deal to me was completely simple. I am a goth and proud of it, goths don't cry. See how simple was that?

Oh alright I'll give you number two, the reason I didn't like crying was because it showed weakness, and to those of you who think letting your feelings show is good for the soul, shove off. I don't like crying, crying plus me equals bad. I hardly ever cried and did my best to never cry…anyway moving on.

I stared for a good two minutes at my teary eyes and took another two minutes to force back the lump in my throat that signified more crying. I took several deep breathes and slowly very slowly I swallowed the lump and the unshed tears in my eyes went away.

Shaking my head I splashed more water onto my face and some on the back of my neck. The cool water running down my skin felt good and seemed to ward away what I had just dreamed and the embarrassment I felt at myself for crying. I shook my head slowly causing water drops to fling off my damp hair and sighed deeply, "This is so wrong."

It wasn't like I'd had a nightmare or anything in fact I didn't even remember the dream that well. I brought a hand up and wiped my eyes a few times before walking back into my room and sprawling out on the bed. I didn't close my eyes however, because I wasn't really that tired anymore. Whether it was from my emotional trauma or sheer annoyance I didn't know but my mind was wide awake. I rolled onto my side and curled up into a fetal position resisting the urge to rock back and forth muttering incoherently.

That was just I needed, more weirdness.

All I could think was pretty much in this order: stupid dream, stupid sleep, stupid Plasmius. I know a poet ain't I?

With another sigh I pulled a blanket over me because my hair was still damp and I was cold. You may be asking why did I say, "Stupid Plasmius" well the answer is quite simple the one thing I did remember about my dream was him. He was doing his whole evil villain laugh thing and let me tell you it was beyond creepy. I didn't know how Danny could listen to that and not visibly shiver, because it sure sent chills down my spine.

I groaned and rolled to the other side trying to push away my nightmare but no matter how hard I tried I could still hear Plasmius's laughter ringing in my ears. "Go away," I mumbled not really knowing why. But the laughter continued and I put my hands over my ears hoping to stop the sound, but amazingly it rang on as if it were an echo in my mind.

Metaphorically speaking of course.

Suddenly a deep, creepy voice spoke up out of nowhere, "It's only a matter of time," it cackled. I whimpered and curled up tighter praying silently for sleep to come but it never did.

Ghost Zone: Time Unknown

Danny groaned as consciousness slowly returned to him and he forced his tired mind away from dreams of a ghost free day out in the park having a picnic, and back to the present. The half ghosts' eyelids fluttered open and upon seeing his surroundings they shot open all the way. Danny pulled himself to his feet and looked around a look of confusion crossed his face until he remembered where he was and what he was doing.

"Aw man, my head," he moaned putting a gloved hand to his forehead. Before he moved it to his mop of white hair and ran it through muttering quietly to himself. _"I guess I'm fine might as well keep going," _the teen thought tiredly.

Sucking in a deep breathe the young half ghost lifted himself off the ground and unsteadily into the air. Danny kept his eyes open glancing warily around him he wasn't sure if Skulker was still around and really didn't want to take that chance. Picking up speed the ghost boy flew towards his destination passing by Pariah Dark's castle he couldn't suppress a shudder than ran down his spine. _"Just keep flying, just keep flying," _he chanted in his mind. And he did just that keeping his head down Danny flew past the ominous structure and finally arrived at Clockwork's Castle.

Danny breathed a sigh of relief anxiousness leaking out of his green eyes the teen flew up to the amazingly huge oak door and stopped. He raised his hand to knock but paused, _"Does he know if I'm here? I mean he should know right? He is the Master of Time. So should I even bother knocking if he knows I'm here or should I just go in?"_ Danny put a hand up to his head, "Ugh this is worse than math class."

The teen decided to knock thinking what could it hurt? And as he did the door creaked open slowly and Danny looked over his shoulder before floating in, once he was inside the door slammed shut behind him causing him to jump in the air.

"Clockwork," the boy called hesitantly into the darkness. He could barely see his hand in front of his face! His voice echoed back to him sounding small and frightened, Danny gulped and landed on the ground and walked forward lighting one of his hands with green energy. His surrounding were lit up in an eerie green glow only lighting up about a five foot area casting the rest of the room into even darker shadows.

"Great," he muttered. Danny walked further into the room, that he had no idea how big it actually was; listening to every step he took as it seemed to be magnified due to the vastness of the room. "Clockwork," he called a little bit more desperately. He was definitely not enjoying the creepy situation, Danny froze when he heard a small sound, 'clank', he peered into the darkness just as a blue childlike face popped into the light.

"Ahh," Danny yelped jumping back about five feet his hands raised in defense. He put them down as he recognized the face, "Clockwork?"

The time ghost floated completely into the light as he changed from a child to a young man, "Danny it is good to see you."

Phantom didn't return the greeting as he was looking curiously at the cloaked ghost, "Clockwork why is it so dark in here?"

"It is always dark in this part of my castle," the ghost answered offhandedly seeming to have other things on his mind. "Might I inquire as to why you are here," he asked politely, although he probably already knew the answer.

"Um yeah but can we talk somewhere else this place is kinda creepy," the teen said slightly embarrassed.

Clockwork nodded and started towards a large opening at the far end of the room and Danny wondered how he missed it in the first place before following him. The two floated in silence until they came to the room that Danny and Tucker had first met Clockwork. The ghost turned to Danny looking expectant and the boy cleared his throat.

"Clockwork I came here because I wanted to ask your advice about something." The time master nodded for him to continue, "I had this dream…and it wasn't a normal dream either it felt so real. And there was this girl in it, I've never seen her before but I feel like I know her from somewhere. She was in trouble and I was in trouble too, it was like we were connected or something." He let his voice trail off feeling stupid.

"And," Clockwork prompted.

"And I was wondering if you could tell if it, the dream I mean, was real. Like the girl was she real?"

Clockwork seemed to look thoughtful before answering, "Yes she is real."

Danny perked up, so he wasn't completely nuts, "Have I met her," I asked again feeling more confident.

"No," Clockwork said.

"_Okay now I'm feeling worried, Clockwork never answers my questions so why is he now?" _ Phantom swallowed starting to feel a bit nervous, "Will I?"

This seemed to snap Clockwork out of his daze because he looked into the boy's bright green eyes with slight humor. "Now Danny you know the rules," he chided a smirk tugging at his ancient face. "I can not disrupt the natural flow of time."

"Yeah I figured as much," Danny admitted also smirking, despite the situation.

"That is all you came here for," Clockwork said, stating it rather than using a question.

Danny nodded, taking that as his cue to leave, and looked around just as Clockwork waved his staff in front of a mirror and a picture of Danny's room appeared. "I thought you wouldn't like to go through the Ghost Zone again," Clockwork explained.

"Thanks Clockwork," the boy said biting back a yawn. The time ghost only nodded and watched with thoughtful eyes as the boy flew into his portal, which he closed behind him.

"Take care boy, because from what I've seen you're going to need all the luck you can get," Clockwork muttered a sad expression coming across his face. With a sigh the time master turned to his portal and gazed into the future hoping what he saw would not happen.

**Authors Note:** Third chapter done! Thank you very much. Other than that I don't have anything to say. Hope you enjoyed it, and that's it. Bye.


	4. Chapter 4

**Authors Note: **Ugh. Desk. Head. Thump. Writer's block sucks. But I'm back.

* * *

Fanfiction: Chapter 4

_If you walk face-first into a physic wall do you get physic bruises? –Clary Fray, City of Bones_

* * *

Real World: 7:10 a.m.

When morning rolled around I hadn't moved an inch. I was still curled up in a ball on top of the covers on my bed staring unseeingly out the window. Why was I doing this? Well for one I was in an extremely uncomfortable position and my legs were cramping badly. And two: I thought I might be going insane.

Yeah number two seemed a little more important to me as well.

My annoyingly loud alarm clock started to blare for the fourth time this morning, its sound no doubt drilling a hole into my already pounding head. With a dull cry of anger I struck out with my foot successfully kicking the blasted thing to the floor. The noise stopped as the device was wrenched from the wall and broke into chunks when it collided with the hard wood floor.

Well that's one way to get a new alarm clock.

Ah, sweet silence. It wrapped around me slowly calming the pounding in my skull, it felt like a team of jack hammerers had been pulling an all night-er on me. If that wasn't enough to make me want to crawl into a dark corner for the rest of my life, realizing it was a school day made it even worse.

A groan escaped my lips and I covered my face with my hands. When would my torture end? Hadn't I been through enough? Obviously not, obviously fate wanted to see how much I could take before I cracked like an egg. Leaving the remains of my shattered psyche to plop into the frying pan of the unforgiving world.

My stomach grumbled loudly and I scowled. Egg metaphors always made me hungry. I pulled myself off my black comforter and stood, swaying unsteadily for a moment. But I regained my balance, sort of, and stumbled into my bathroom.

When I saw my reflection I froze the pounding in my head became strong enough to actually draw a gasp from me. I leaned forward and gripped the counter top, the pounding becoming incredibly painful. A strong flash of pain ripped through my skull, sharp as a knife and the night's events came crashing back to me.

My dream. Danny Phantom. Plasmius. Me. Darkness. Pain. A scream. Pleading, sobbing. Tears. My tears? "I'm sorry," My voice?

I gasped once more the pain sliding away. I cracked my eyes open, I was on the floor? How did that happen? And boy was it cold, but it felt good. I pressed my flaming cheek into the cool linoleum just breathing in and out slowly. Why was this happening? That dream, it had felt so real and now this. Was I loosing it?

Dry laughter filled my bathroom, not the kind that others join in with, the kind that others share uneasy glances with each other wondering if you're sane or not. How appropriate. But something was wrong, something was extremely wrong. Come to think of it nothing had felt right since I met Mr. Bryant. Coincidence? I don't think so.

That was it. I sat up my hands scrabbling on the counter to pull my body up into a standing position. After I met Bryant everything had been off, just a feeling in the pit of my stomach warning me of impending doom. Wow, a goth talking about impending doom. Never saw that one coming.

"Hey Sam!" I nearly jumped out of my skin when my little brother pounded no my bedroom door screaming his head off. I groaned deeply, how was I gonna explain this to him? He's twelve years old for Pete's sake! "S-a-m," he somehow managed to make my name into a three syllable word. The pounding increased, because Jacob was about impatient as a kid with ADD.

"Yes, little brother," I said through the door, knowing he would hate being called that.

"Sam," Jacob growled, I could just picture him with his arms crossed over his chest and a glare on his face. "We're gonna be late for the bus if you don't hurry up!" I groaned; there was no way I was going to school today. I backed away from the door an idea already blooming in my mind. My dreams had started after running into Bryant right, so maybe if I found out what was so weird about him they'd go away.

"Jake, I'm not feeling so good," my voice changed to a pathetic groan. I put a hand up to my forehead, just to get in the mood and continued, "I don't think I'll be able to make it."

My acting must have been better than I thought because Jacob's voice changed to concern, "Whoa Sam, are you sure you're gonna be okay? I can stay home with you if you want." No, that wouldn't work. I needed to be alone if my plan had any chance of working. Man, I felt like a convict or something.

"No, I'll be fine Jacob," a pathetic cough here, "you go ahead without me," and a small groan there. He seemed uncertain, I could hear him shuffling on the other side of the door as if he wanted to leave but his feet were glued to the floor.

"Alright Sam, but call me if you need anything," he sounded really concerned and I felt like a jerk. But the last thing I needed was my little brother tagging along on my mission, no that didn't sound right…, my uh covert operation? Still didn't sound right but it'd have to do.

"Don't worry Jake, I'll be fine go on before you're late," I coaxed still feeling jerk-ish. I heard him sigh before all that was left was his receding footsteps, the front door slammed then silence. I was alone, my parents were already at work and, I glanced at my clock: 7:21, it was really early.

Okay now it was time for some planning. I went over to my closet and pulled on a pair of jeans and a black and purple t-shirt before lacing up my combat boots. I went back to my bed and flopped onto the mattress. If I was actually going to go through with this crazy idea I needed to plan ahead.

I sat up, leaning forward to put my elbows on my knees and prop my head up. "Alright Bryant is the new boss of my mom's work so that probably means his office is going to be in the same place as mom's. Now I know where that is and I can most likely get in by saying that I'm here to see mom, but if I do get in what am I gonna do after that?" That was the question.

My suspicions that Bryant was Plasmius were back with a vengeance, so I was thinking in this sense: where would Plasmius keep his secret plans or in this case any incriminating evidence. The answer: in his secret lab of course. So here was my dilemma where would he have his secret lab? I doubt he'd have it in his office that would be way too obvious…but in the show he had it in his mansion.

Light bulb!

I jumped off the bed a grin sliding across my face. All I had to do was find out where he lived and then I'd find the evidence to prove my suspicions. But wait… how would I find out where he lived? I couldn't just call him up and ask; that would not work. Couldn't call mom she'd be too suspicious. I started pacing around my room head down, arms behind my back.

Ding! Phone book, duh. I rushed out of my room clomping down the steps and into the living room amazingly I was able to keep my balance through my mad dash and reached the room unscathed. I grabbed the phone book off the book shelf and started flipping to the B's. As luck would have it Vladimir Bryant was not listed.

With a disgusted sigh I threw the book away from me watching in satisfaction as it hit the wall and fell to the floor. "Okay so that didn't work, what now?" I really wished that I knew somebody like Tucker, then this wouldn't be so hard.

Whoa, back up there's an idea. I did know somebody smart, and maybe he could help me, if we were still cool and all. I ran back upstairs and grabbed my cell phone off the hook before flopping into my bean bag chair in the corner. Diego came out of nowhere and leapt onto my lap nuzzling under my arm like some sort of cat, I scratched his ears and he whimpered in delight. On my phone I scrolled down to a name and stopped. The last time I'd seen him we had exactly left on good terms.

But he was my friend of course he'd help me…right?

I sucked in a deep breath and pressed the name: Shawn. He answered on the second ring, making me wonder if he'd been waiting for this call or he was just really close to the phone. "Sam," his voice was questioning, so I'm guessing he wasn't expecting it. Joy.

I cleared my throat trying my best not to sound nervous, "Hey Shawn, listen I've got a favor to ask you."

Silence. At first I thought he hadn't heard me and was about to repeat myself when he answered, "What is it?"

Another deep breath before I took the plunge completely, "I need you to skip school and meet me at my house." Okay, so maybe that wasn't the best thing to say but I wasn't the subtle kind of girl.

"What," Shawn exclaimed causing me to wince from how loud his shout was. You see, Shawn was a total perfectionist; he hadn't missed a day of school all year. So trying to convince him to ruin his perfect attendance record was like trying to drag a St. Bernard into a bath tub, it just wasn't going to happen.

"Keep it down, spazzy," I hissed before repeating myself. "I said I need you to skip school and meet me at home."

"Yeah, Sam I heard you that's not what I'm spazzing about," he said heavy annoyance in his tone, and I could almost see the quotation marks around 'spazzing.' "I'm mad that you're asking me to skip school and ruin my perfect attendance."

Yep, I knew it he was such a nerd. But I could taunt him later, at the moment I had to figure out how to convince him to "ruin his record." I sighed dramatically before saying, "Shawn you remember last week when that rumor was going around school that a guy walked into the girl's bathroom? Wouldn't it be funny if there was a name to go with the rumor? Imagine what everyone would say." I let my words hang in the air and waited.

Shawn was quiet for a few moments before saying, "What time should I be there?"

Grinning triumphantly I told him ASAP and he hung up not before saying quietly, "only for you Sam." That took the fun out of my victory and I slowly closed the phone.

"This is not going to be fun."

Real World 7:35 a.m.

Twenty-five minutes later found me opening the front door to a very annoyed and self-conscious looking Shawn. I stared at him and he stared back at me, "Hey," I ventured pushing Diego back into the house with my foot.

"Hi," he said sounding strangely subdued.

"Thanks for coming," why was I thanking him? I guess it was because he looked so pathetic.

"No problem." Awkward silence.

Okay, this was getting ridiculous. I cleared my throat and straightened my shoulders, "Well now that you're here I can tell you why exactly you're, uh here." Before he could question that sentence I pulled him fully into the house. We went past the foyer, which was pretty much just an extremely big hallway with a chandelier hanging from the ceiling, and into the living room. Well actually the second living room, we had about three and this one was my favorite.

How weird did that sentence sound?

Once inside the second living room I sat down on the squishy black couch and Shawn sat across from me in the brown love seat, I invited him over a lot so he wasn't exactly daunted by my house/mansion. "Okay, Shawn this is gonna sound crazy-"

"Why am I not surprised," Shawn interrupted shooting me a sly grin. I glared at him and threw a decorative pillow at his head, he ducked it but I felt better. I always hated those stupid pillows, they serve no purpose! They aren't even comfortable.

"As I was saying," here I added a pointed glare. "You remember the other day when I was telling you about that Bryant guy," Shawn nodded a smirk sliding across his face. "Well I had a dream last night and it just kinda made me think that Bryant is Masters and I'm gonna find out today." I waited, Shawn was staring at me as if I'd gone crazy, maybe I had? But I didn't feel crazy so I was just going to say I wasn't.

Shawn cleared his throat and wiped his hands on his jeans, "Well, um Sam…how do you plan to do this? Because I don't think walking up to him and asking is going to work." He looked like he wanted to say something else but held it back, I was grateful.

"Easy, I'm going to sneak into his office, find out where he lives then go to his house and find the evidence I need, well okay maybe it's not that easy but that's beside the point," I said confidently. By now Shawn's jaw had practically disconnected and was lying on the floor, his blue eyes were opened wide in shock.

"Are you crazy," he said, standing up and beginning to pace. "You're planning to sneak into his office then into his house, that's against the law Sam," he practically shouted, turning to face me.

"Actually, that's why I asked you to come," I stood also smiling sheepishly at him. "I need _you_ to sneak into his office, I can't do it because the staff knows me," I trailed off feeling silly.

Eyes bugging, Shawn sat back down on the love seat and swallowed his Adam's apple bobbing, "I can not believe this," he mumbled running a hand through his spiky hair. He looked back up at me, "Are you serious about this?"

I nodded determinedly and he sighed, "You're positive this Bryant guy is an evil cartoon character?" I nodded again, though slightly less confident.

"Listen, Shawn if you do this and we find nothing suspicious, nothing that could link Bryant to Plasmius I'll never ask you to do anything ever again," I vowed blinking sincerely at him.

Shawn sighed again, he didn't sound exasperated just kind of shaky like he was nervous. _Well, duh he's nervous, _I shouted in my mind. _I just asked him to sneak into some guy's office and then into his home. _

"Alright, Sam," Shawn's quiet voice pulled me from my thoughts and I returned my attention to him. "But if we find nothing, nothing at all you so owe me."

I grinned broadly and threw my arms around his neck, something I do not do often mind you, and hugged him. "Thank you, thank you, thank you Shawn! After this is over I promise I'll get you that new computer software you've been dying to have."

"Ha, thanks," Shawn chuckled and I pulled away from him grinning as well. This was awesome! I couldn't believe Shawn was actually going to help me. It just proved what a good friend he really was. "So what's the plan," he asked starting to sound a little enthusiastic.

I smiled slyly at him, "Alright it's going to work like this…"

9:37 a.m.

"Sam, I'm suddenly not sure if this is such a good idea," Shawn said uncertainly into the walkie talkie he held. He was dressed in a pair of baggy jeans and an official looking purple shirt that said EdFex on it in bold letters with a matching hat. He was standing outside a large, around four story building, most of the building consisted of glass paned windows. And although Shawn couldn't see it, he was sure the building's end was at least a mile away. In other words it was huge.

Shawn was pushing a bike with one hand and the other held the walkie talkie up to his ear. "Oh c'mon Shawn," Sam's voice said over the radio wave. "We spent two hours going over the plan, it'll work trust me."

Sam was stationed outside of the compound ducking behind a line of bushes with a pair of binoculars and cell phone on hand. Shawn shifted his feet uncomfortably, "Yeah, but what if Bryant comes back when I'm in there?"

"Don't worry, I checked with my mom. Apparently Mr. Bryant is at a meeting in the city right now and won't be back for the rest of the day," Sam said confidently. "And I already called ahead, the secretary is expected the package for Bryant. This is gonna work, I promise," she said comfortingly.

For some reason Shawn didn't feel that comforted. But he really didn't want to come off as a wimp around Sam so he straightened his shoulders and nodded, "Alright Sam, I trust you." With that he walked into the building bike in tow.

He rolled up to the front desk, where a pretty brunette around twenty-five was typing dutifully on the computer. She wore a headset and was sucking on a pepper mint. Shawn sucked in a bracing breath and cleared his throat, "Excuse me," the woman looked up pausing in her typing. "I have a package to deliver to a Mr," Shawn looked down to at his clipboard before saying, "Bryant."

The woman nodded and typed something on the computer before saying, "Yes, Mr. Bryant is at a meeting right now. But if you leave it here I will sign for it and deliver it to him when he arrives."

Shawn panicked for a moment before regaining his composure, "Sorry, Ms. But I was instructed to deliver this package directly to Mr. Bryant's office in case he was not present to receive it himself." The teenager mentally patted himself on the back for the quick fib, it sure did sound official.

The secretary looked peeved for a moment before also regaining her composure, "I see," she said in a clipped tone that revealed her inner annoyance. "His office is on the fourth floor room 218, once you arrive call the front desk and tell me. If you don't I will call security, do you understand," she leered down at the blond who smiled nervously.

"No problem," he said leaning his bike against the desk. Once that was done he scooted out of there heading for the elevator, silently thanking the gods he got away with that. He was thankful he was so tall or that would have never worked. Shawn arrived in the elevator and hit the four; he rode up in silence listening to the tune for "I can see clearly now the rain has gone."

Shawn strutted down the busy halls of the fourth floor, doing his best to act casual, though on the inside he was hyperventilating. He was never the type to take risks; he was more like the kid who didn't swing on the monkey bars in first grade because he didn't want to fall. Actually the bravest thing he'd ever done was eating a meal, without washing his hands.

"I can not believe I'm doing this," Shawn murmured under his breath, nodding his head to an old guy pushing a mail cart. After what seemed like an eternity Shawn arrived at room 218 at the end of the hall, with no other doors or people around.

"Not creepy," he muttered before opening the door and peering in. He saw a large room with a desk in the center of the room, behind it a set of double doors led off to another room, there were several couches lined up against the wall and a potted plant in the corner, _this must be Bryant's secretary's desk, _Shawn reasoned.

Thankfully the office was empty this would make his job a lot easier. Shawn immediately went to the desk and hit the button that said 'front desk', the woman picked up and he told her he arrived. "You have five minutes, if you're not back down here by then I call security," she said sounding as if she was enjoying herself.

Before he could protest she hung up, Shawn growled in his throat whipping out the walkie talkie. "Sam, I'm in," he said moving around to the other side of the desk to pull open a few drawers and rifle through them.

"Great," Sam said her voice slightly altered by static.

"Yeah, the not so great thing is I've got five minutes to find out where he lives before security comes," Shawn ground out nervousness making him snap. He found nothing in the desk drawers and quickly maneuvered himself into the seat and logged onto the computer. Thankfully it did not require a pass code, or his mission would have been over before it began. He went directly to the computer's documents and scrolled through the options.

Sweat trickled down the boy's temple and he absentmindedly wiped it away, he found a folder labeled Vladimir Bryant and clicked on it. Shawn exhaled a sigh of relief when he saw the man's address pop up, along with phone number and a bit of personal information. He didn't bother with that and quickly scribbled down the address onto his clipboard, that done he jumped up from the computer desk, his breathing coming in quick pants.

He glanced at the clock and gasped; he'd already wasted four minutes. "Shawn, you need to get out of there now," Sam said sounding anxious. Shawn nodded and, grabbing the clipboard, sprinted from the office. Completely forgetting to log off from the computer, or even exit off from the page about Bryant. Nor did he notice the flashing red light in the top corner of the room as a small video camera silently filmed all of his actions.

Shawn decided to skip the slow elevator, opting to thunder down the four stories to ground floor. He burst out of the stair well and scurried over to the front desk, his chest heaving from his mad dash down the steps. He wasn't exactly in the best shape, and the fact that he was scared out of his wits didn't help the matter.

The front desk woman's face soured upon seeing Shawn appear just under the five minute mark, making the boy wonder if she had secretly wanted to call security on him. He decided to ignore her and grabbed his bike by the handles. He tipped his hat to her and said, "Have a nice day ma'am," as cheerfully as possible.

Shawn forced his legs to move at a slow steady rate out the door, even though he wanted to sprint like a madman away from the horrid building. He made it outside unscathed and pushed his bike behind the bushes that Sam was waiting for him in, when she saw him she grinned and slapped him a high five.

"You did it," she congratulated the hyperventilating boy, who was bent over with his hands on his knees.

He scowled weakly up at her, "Sam if you ever, and I mean ever, ask me to do something like that again we are no longer friends."

"You've got a deal, my friend," Sam agreed but added hastily. "That is after we sneak into Bryant's house."

Shawn groaned.

10:14 a.m.

Now, I know a lot about huge houses. I live in one. But I had never seen a giant green and gold colored mansion in my life before. Shawn and I were pretty much in the middle of nowhere, all I could see was trees and open fields for miles around, staring wide eyed at the castle-y mansion thing that seemed to go on forever. And strangely enough it looked like Vlad Master's house from the show.

Coincidence? I think not.

I turned to Shawn, who was still clad in the EdFex uniform, "Does that look familiar to you," I questioned waving my arms for emphasis.

Shawn titled his head to the side a little, his light brown eyebrows scrunching together, "Sam," his voice was quiet. So quiet it was almost snatched away by the wind, I leaned closer watching in fascination as his shoulders tensed, "I think we both might be crazy."

"No, we're just unique," I argued. So we had done some crazy stuff today, but I knew it would all pay off in the end. I mean, here we were at Bryant's house about to prove he was in fact a creepy lonely fruit loop. "C'mon let's just get going, this place is huge it might take a while to search through," I started walking up the long gravel driveway, Shawn following a moment later.

It took six minutes of walking to finally reach the front door. Six minutes! Imagine what a hassle getting the mail would be. "Okay," Shawn panted leaning on one of the white marble pillars for support, he wasn't in very good shape. Or in any shape at all, for that matter. "Now that we're here what do we do?"

I opened my mouth to answer only to pause, what were we going to do? I hadn't really planned anything up past finding out Bryant's address, "Uh…um maybe the doors unlocked?" My voice kind of got squeaky at the end when I said this, Shawn raised an eyebrow.

"Well by all means feel free to open the door, don't let me stop you," Shawn said as sarcastically as possible, motioning to the door in a mocking gesture.

Scowling, I pushed past him and trudged to the door, suddenly not feeling very confident. What were the chances that he left it open? Really, he's an evil half ghost, like he'd be dumb enough to leave his front door unlocked. I grasped the large chrome door handle and squeezed, I felt the tumbler connect and slowly, ever so slowly, the door creaked inward. I spared a surprised glance at Shawn; he looked about as shocked as I felt.

Well, Vlad did forget to change the ecto-filltrator on the show. I shrugged and walked inside, my boots clapping on the tiled floor, sneaker-ed feet soon followed echoing eerily through the empty foyer. Shawn whistled, "And I thought your house was excessively large."

"You know what they say about guys with big houses," I said wiggling my eyebrows. Shawn snorted before bursting into hysterics. I walked slowly down the large hallway, small shivers running down my spine as my footsteps echoed eerily around me. I'm all for darkness and everything but this was just creepy.

"So, how exactly are we planning on finding incriminating evidence," Shawn asked, coming up beside me with air quotations.

I scowled at him, "Do you even watch the show?" He rolled his eyes and I continued, "All we have to do is find either a basement or a secret passageway or something." It was true the Vlad on the show had his "secret lab" in a basement through a secret passageway in one of his private studies. And judging by the size of this house there was A LOT of private studies.

Shawn seemed to pick up on my thoughts because he pointed out, "Uh Sam, I think that might take a while."

I growled then said throwing up my hands, "Then split up," before he could retort I stormed away heading for a large hallway off to the side. I really didn't mean to snap but I was beyond annoyed at this point because, he was right. Searching this entire place could take hours.

At that moment I turned a corner and froze in my tracks, there were about eight doors in this hallway alone. I groaned, running a hand down my face, "You have got to be kidding me," I yell/whispered.

I sighed before opening the first door and sticking my head in, I saw a bedroom. An insanely large bedroom with a four poster bed and two couches, I saw a couple doors leading off into what I assumed was a walk in closet and I gigantic window looking out into the forest surrounding the mansion. I shook my head and closed the door, before continuing on to the next door.

My search went like this: bedroom, bedroom, study, bedroom, bedroom, library, bedroom, living room, I've got no idea but it was big, room filled with paintings, and you guessed it a bedroom. An hour and a half later I was back where I started only having covered about a third of the castle; I wiped my hand across my forehead and pulled my black hair up into a pony tail. I'd found nothing, absolutely nothing, but there was still a chance Shawn found something.

"Shawn," I called cupping my hands over my mouth, my voice echoed back to me. Did I mention how creepy that was?

A moment later I heard Shawn's voice shouting, "In here!" I rolled my eyes, yeah like I knew where 'here' was. But I followed where his voice had come from and found myself walking into a dining room. As you can probably guess from the pattern it was huge, the table alone was bigger than the whole 1st level of my house. Shawn was at the far end stuffing his face with what looked like some sort of chocolate cake. Spread before him was an array of sweet treats and a large goblet of soda.

He waved to me while taking a large bite of pound cake. "What are you doing," I demanded stalking up to him and placing my hands on my hips.

Shawn froze, the cup halfway up to his lips, he swallowed. "Uh you want some," he pointed to a plate of chocolate chips. "Bryant's loaded with snacks, you have to see his kitchen."

My hands fisted on either side of my body and I bit back an angry retort, instead taking a deep breath and releasing it slowly. "Shawn, please tell me you haven't been in here the whole time," I said exasperated.

"Of course not," he said offended. "I was just refueling," he stood up wiping his mouth on his shoulder, which was really gross by the way. "I knew I wouldn't be able to find you so I was waiting here for you, c'mon," he waved heading out through a double swinging mahogany door. I followed grabbing a cookie on the way out, it tasted like sweet chocolate-y heaven. I followed Shawn down winding passageways, past a hallway filled with suits of armor and up to a large green door with gold trim. It practically screamed, 'I've got something important behind me.'

Shawn pushed the wide double doors open and I followed him in and stopped in the wide open room. Books lined all four walls; I mean tons of books at least a thousand. There was a large desk towards the middle of the room with papers splayed on top it, across from that was a humongous fireplace. The bricks were a deep red color and took up a great part of the wall. I looked to my left and saw a small sitting area with a few black leather chairs set up around a small table.

"Cool, huh," Shawn said from where he stood behind the desk. He was opening and looking through the drawers with a contemplative expression. I was still kind of shocked by the vastness of the room; it was probably the largest most sophisticated room I'd ever been in.

And since I'm not exactly poor that was saying something.

"Whoa," I breathed running my hands across the smooth wood of the book shelf. I stopped and pulled out a book, skimming the title before turning to Shawn. I held the book up, "Interesting reading material for a forty year old billionaire."

I tossed the book to him and he fumbled before catching it and reading the title out loud, "Study of the Paranormal and Supernatural." He looked up at me his forehead creased, "that's a strange coincidence."

"I don't think it's a coincidence," I told him seriously moving away from the bookshelf and towards the fireplace. Of course in the show Vlad's secret lab was behind the fireplace, I wasn't sure if it would be in the same place but it was worth a shot. When I got closer to the fireplace I could make out the pictures sitting on the mantle, my mouth slowly gaped open when I saw who was in the picture. I waved frantically at Shawn and he came up behind me his eyes widening as well.

"Who do they look like, Shawn," I asked breathlessly pointing to the small family in the picture. My eyes drifted to the tallest person in the picture, a middle aged man with graying black hair; he had a broad chin and was grinning with a goofy child like smile. My gaze shifted to the woman in the picture, she was also tall and had short red/brown hair. My eyes next found the young girl in the picture; she looked to be about a little older than me with long orange hair and a blue head band. When my eyes landed on the last member of the family, I gasped out loud. The boy was probably my age with messy raven hair dressed in jeans and a red and white t-shirt. The most striking thing, however, was his bright blue eyes that seemed to shine with a life of their own.

"Holy crap," Shawn said, looking the definition of shell-shocked.

I reached up with a shaky hand and picked up the picture, but the moment I did a deep rumbling sound filled the room. I stepped quickly away from the fireplace as it split down the middle and slid sideways to reveal a shadowy staircase leading down into darkness. I looked to Shawn, but he was staring uncertainly at what remained of the fireplace. I reached over and grasped his hand, it felt kind of warm and clammy, and pulling him behind me I descended into the black abyss.

* * *

ML: Alright, time to clear a few things up. Shawn and Sam are never, I repeat NEVER going to go out. They are never, ever going to be more than friends. Are we clear? The only reason I even created him was because Real World Sam needed to have a group of friends. And if she was all alone through this chapter it would have been a little boring. Now that, that's out of the way I hope you all liked the chapter. I made it extra long because of the long wait. I had extreme writer's block, you don't even know how bad it was. I will try my best to make the next chapter faster, until then happy reading.


	5. Chapter 5

Fanfiction Chapter 5

* * *

_The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug: Mark Twain. _

* * *

Real World: 10:50 a.m.

I'm starting to rethink my stance on the whole eternal darkness thing, for a number of reasons. One, you can't exactly see in the dark. And when you're in some creepy evil guy's mansion, unannounced, you kinda don't want to be lost in the dark. Two, when you're in said mansion, in the dark, anything could jump out at you, and you'd never know until it was too late.

I stumbled once more on the stone staircase, and had to reach my arm out to steady myself. Of course that would have been fine if I wasn't stuck in a completely dark stairway, with my best friend, and if the wall wasn't coated in a slimy substance that felt suspiciously like snot. I grimaced and wiped my hand on the leg of my jeans. I heard a quiet curse somewhere to my left and stuck my hand out to touch Shawn.

"You alright," I whispered. For some reason I felt the need to be quiet. The silence seemed to be pressing in on and me and if I spoke too loudly it would shatter around me. I took another tentative step down, feeling with my toe where I should put my foot.

"Yeah, just peachy," Shawn griped from somewhere in the darkness. I grabbed his hand in a reassuring gesture, I knew he was scared. He always got whiny when he was scared, but of course since he was a guy he'd never admit it.

"I'm creep-ed out too," I told him, taking another slow step down. Shawn's palm was a little sweaty and clammy but I didn't blame him, I was nervous as well. Another step and I stopped blinking in surprise. I was sure I'd just seen a small pinprick of light in the distance, the light at the end of the tunnel. Just as I was going to ask Shawn if he'd seen it too he asked in a quiet tone:

"Hey, Sam um if we don't, you know make it out of here there's kinda something I want to tell you-"

"Hold that thought for one second," I interrupted holding up a hand, though I don't know why. He couldn't see it anyway. I squinted into the darkness and took another step forward, and sure enough I saw light. "There's light ahead," I said reaching back to grab his arm, "C'mon."

We stumbled down the last few steps and came out into a wide, spacious, dungeon-esque room. The floor was made of some sort of stone that was rough and cracked, hinting that it was very old. The ceiling was high above our heads and was cast in darkness; it almost looked like we were in a cave. That idea was dashed, however, when my eyes took in what else was in the room. High tech computers lined the walls. A giant t.v screen took up almost half the wall and smaller blinking, beeping computers surrounded it. Directly across from us was a row of large, capsule like chambers that eerily resembled the ones from Danny Phantom, in the episode Kindred Spirits.

I gulped at the sight of them and quickly turned away, taking in the sight of the rest of the room before me. I heard a quiet gasping/chocking sound come from beside me and turned to see Shawn, staring wide eyed, mouth agape at the computers. Before I could comment on his total geeky-ness, he had already dashed over to one of the computers and started running his hands over it muttering, "This technology isn't even possible yet."

I stepped further into the room, feeling slightly reluctant. The place just had an aura of creepiness. I peered around the sides of the computers, doing my best to ignore Shawn as he ogled at the "amazing" technology around us. There was something wrong with this picture; the room seemed to be missing something.

I rounded the corner and stopped dead in my tracks, doing my impression of a deer in headlights. A large, green, swirling cyclone thing was floating, yes floating, in the middle of the hallway. It wasn't like the Fenton portal, because it wasn't built into the wall or anything, it was just floating in the middle of the room.

"Shawn," I called, voice a little squeaky, "You've got to come see this."

A moment later Shawn rounded the corner and froze, just as I had, his mouth gaped open, "Is that…how is that possible…that's crazy…what is it," he babbled walking closer to the swirling thing.

"Don't," I pulled him back before he could touch it. Usually scary swirling things, that you don't know what they are, are kind of dangerous. "We don't know what that thing is, so _don't_ touch it," I said releasing his arm.

Jeez, I felt like my mother.

I shook my head, black bangs swishing into my eyes, and stepped closer to the portal. It was beautiful. The swirling green depths looked kind of like a lava lamp, except bigger, and of course _floating. _I wanted to touch it, I wanted to feel the liquid, let it run through my fingers. It looked so soothing. I raised a hand and let my finger tip brush the portal; instantly cold rushed through my hand, followed closely by a pulling sensation. The portal was pulling me in. I ripped my hand away and stepped back, shivering.

Instantly I felt a pair of hands start to rub my shoulders and looked up, Shawn stood behind me. The look on his face was soft, concerned, almost…loving? I put my hand on his and lifted it from my shoulder, "Thanks," I said, stepping away from him. I looked over at the computers and pretended to be examining them, so it just looked like I was busy instead of trying to get away from him. "What do you think that thing is," I asked, trying to keep my uncomfortable-ness out of my voice.

Shawn, looking slightly disappointed, examined the portal as well, "It kind of looks like the Fenton Portal, so maybe it is."

Well, that made sense. "Yeah, maybe," I agreed. Then my face brightened, "Then, this proves it!" I waved my arms through the air.

"Proves what," Shawn asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Bryant has to be Plasmius," I said exasperated. It was the only explanation and now we had the proof we came for. But now that we had it, what were we going to do? We couldn't exactly tell the police, they'd laugh and probably write us up for missing school. We couldn't tell my mom, she couldn't go against Vlad or she'd chance loosing her job. So who?

I opened my mouth to ask but a sudden chill ran down my spine. I shivered violently as the room temperature dropped drastically. I looked over to Shawn and saw he too was shivering, his teeth chattering. "W-what's goin…going on?" I asked, my breath puffing out in front of me.

"I…I don't know," Shawn said. He was turned towards me so he couldn't see as a huge, glowing being suddenly appeared behind him. I froze, breath hitching in my throat, the thing was huge; at least over 6'5 feet. It was broad shouldered and its skin was a hard shiny metallic color. It had the look of a very large human because it had a face, a hard angular face with a flaming green Mohawk and goatee. It was…but it couldn't be. It was impossible…but it was. It was Skulker.

"Sh- Shaw," I tried to warn him but was too scared to even get out his name.

"What is it Sam," Shawn asked taking a step towards me. I shook my head and pointed behind him, with a shaking hand. Shawn stopped and slowly, ever so slowly, craned his neck around to see what I was pointing at. "Holy-" I heard him whisper, as he back towards me slowly.

Skulker grinned, his teeth blocky and white, "I don't believe Plasmius was expecting visitors," his voice was so deep and rumble-y, he kind of sounded like Vin Diesel in Pitch Black. Skulker brought up his arm and a frighteningly large gun popped out of his forearm, that began to glow an eerie green as he aimed it at Shawn and I. "So I don't think he will mind if I take care of you two," The ghost continued, green eyes shining with excitement.

Shawn and I shared a frightful glance; each too scared to really move. Shawn's blue eyes looked into mine, emotion battling in his gaze before they hardened and he stepped in front of me, blocking me from Skulker's view. I looked at the back of his head shocked. He was ready to sacrifice himself, for me? No. We were going to get out of this. Both of us were going to get out of this alive.

"Sacrificing yourself for the female," Skulker laughed, his deep voice ringing around the cavernous room. "Humans are so entertaining," the gun powered up casting a deep evil green across the floor. And Shawn wasn't moving; he stood rigidly in front of me.

He looked so brave, but I could see that his hands were shaking. The glow from the gun increased, it was about to fire and Shawn still wasn't going to move. "No," I shouted diving forward just as the gun went off, and a ball of dangerous green energy exploded out of the gun. I collided with Shawn's back and we tumbled to the side, just underneath the blast of energy. It actually singed a few of my hairs as it screamed over our heads.

We landed in a heap and I looked up just in time to see the shot, meant for us, collide with a row of computers and explode, sparks shooting into the air. I rolled onto my knees watching with wide eyes as Skulker cursed under his breath and turned the gun towards us again. "C'mon, Shawn," I shouted frantically. I dragged him to his feet and looked around for an escape. We couldn't dodge again, Skulker had learned that trick. We had to get out of the room, but the doorway was too far away.

That only left…

"The portal," I cried, already dragging Shawn behind me. The swirling, green cyclone was only a few steps away, but if felt like a hundred. We sprinted for it, full force and dove, our hands interlocked, into the spinning green. I distantly heard the gun firing again, and Skulker's angry shouts, before it was snatched away by a loud whistling sound. Intense cold shot through my body and I gasped, but didn't dare open my eyes.

I was falling, I knew that. Wind was whipping my hair into a frenzy, and I screamed before I fell into darkness.

Real World: 11:18 a.m.

The man, to say the least was feeling pretty good about himself. He was sitting in the back of a fancy, black limousine with all black leather interior. He swirled a glass of fine brandy, and took a sip, enjoying as the liquid ran down his throat. He glanced out the window, watching as he passed field after field of beautiful green pasture, and chuckled for reasons only he knew. His good mood left him, however, when an insistent buzzing noise filled his ears.

He reached over and hit a button on the arm rest of his seat and sighed before saying in a thickly cultured voice, "Yes, Carl?"

"I'm sorry to bother you, Mr. Bryant, but there's a call for you from your office sir. She says it's important," his driver answered nervously. People always got nervous around him; it was both entertaining and slightly annoying.

"Put her through," Vlad ordered, leaning his head back into the cushion of his seat.

"Mr. Bryant," A woman's voice said through the phones speakers located around the limo. She too, sounded nervous and Vlad resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"Yes, Patricia, what is it?" The man asked as he ran a hand through his now short cropped hair. He still wasn't used to having it cut so short.

"Um, sir there's been a problem-" Patricia trailed off and Vlad could just picture the young brunette biting her lip nervously.

He straightened up a bit and said, voice insistent, "What kind of problem?"

There was a sharp intake of breath, as if the woman were bracing herself before she said, "Someone hacked into your private computer, sir." Vlad's ice blue eyes narrowed and he sat up fully, his glass of brandy forgotten. He fingered his short goatee in a thoughtful manner.

"Did they take anything," he asked.

"N-no, sir, they seem to only have looked at your personal information. They didn't take or leave anything."

"Hm," Vlad murmured under his breath. "Did you see this person's face?" He queried, becoming more intrigued by the moment.

Patricia swallowed, "Yes sir, I'm sending the fax to you now."

Another beeping noise filled the back seat of the limo and Vlad looked to his fax machine beside the drink counter as it began to buzz and whir. A piece of paper slid out of the machine and the man snatched it up, staring intently at the amazingly clear picture. It showed a young man, looking to be about fifteen or sixteen, sitting at his secretary's desk. He had a black cap over his head and clear blue eyes. The boy was dressed in a purple and black uniform that said EdFex on the crest.

Vlad's eyes gleamed as a sinister smile crossed his face. He knew who that was, and that meant that his evaluations had been correct, Ms. Samantha had certainly been busy. The man cleared his throat, "Patricia, how about you keep this little incident between us, hmm?"

If the woman had seemed nervous before she was practically shaking with fear now. "Y-yes sir," her voice wavered.

"Good," Vlad said curtly, and hit the end call button before the woman could reply. He held the picture up, unable to stop the smirk from sliding across his face. It seemed that he had underestimated Young Samantha. He had at least expected a few more days before she put two and two together. After all it was her fault that he was even in this world in the first place.

Not that she knew that, and Vlad couldn't wait to see the look on the young girls' face when he revealed it to her. Vladimir Bryant a.k.a Vlad Masters leaned back in his seat, placed his hands behind his head, and smiled in satisfaction. It was only a matter of time before he could begin his plan, and then he would finally have one of the things he had desired for some time. With that thought in mind he looked back out the window and watched as the landscape passed by in a blur that was so very different from the one he was used to.

DP Universe

Location: Wisconsin

Ugh. My head hurt. No, my head didn't just hurt, my head throbbed. With every beat of my heart it hurt more and more. Well, at least I my heart was beating, that was something to be happy about. I groaned low in my throat and cracked my eyes open, slowly. Very, very slowly. The first thing I saw was floor, gray, tile floor. I blinked a couple times to clear my blurry vision and then sat up, propping myself up on my elbows.

The next thing I saw was my surroundings, and to say the least, they were weird. Everything looked…bulgy. You know how when you look at a desk and you can see the patterns and scratches on it? Well looking around, there was none of that. Everything was perfectly seamless. I was still in a lab-y looking room, except this one was more futuristic looking. As in, it wasn't in a cave. "Wow," I murmured, running a hand over my face, "What happened?"

Like I said before, my head was pounding, so I'm guessing that's why I wasn't exactly thinking straight. I drew my eyes away from the high tech lab equipment and looked to the side, I gasped when I saw the boy sprawled out beside me. He had spiky blond hair that stuck up in unruly clumps all over his head and dark tan skin, dressed in a half purple and half black t-shirt. But that wasn't what was shocking, what was shocking was the fact that the guy I was staring at, was a cartoon!

I could tell by the sharp angles of his elbows and knees and his all around appearance. His face had no blemishes and pretty much all I could make out were his eyes, mouth and nose. And he had a sharp chin that reminded me of someone, but I couldn't quite put my finger on whom. I reached out to touch him and that was when I noticed my own hand.

"Eep," I squeaked, staring mystified at "my" hand. But it couldn't be my hand, right? Since when did my hand look like that? It was…well the only way to describe it would be cartoon-ish. It was kind of bulgy. I couldn't explain it any other way, except maybe freaky.

I reached into my back pocket and pulled out my compact, but stopped to stare at it intently. It looked different too, smaller and less real. I opened the top slowly, and almost unwillingly looked at my reflection. I still had my violet colored eyes, but they were set into a very different face. My nose was kind of pointy and angled to the side. And my hair, which had fallen out of the pony tail, hung to right below my ears. And it was very straight, straighter than it had ever been. I pretty much only had one cheek that swooped out to the side in an oval shape.

I still looked like me, just a cartoon me. Wow, that was weird to say.

That was when it hit me, like a ton of bricks. Before I'd blacked out, I'd been in Bryant's house, Bryant was Vlad Plasmius. When I woke up I was in a lab, and I was a cartoon. So that meant, I was in the Danny Phantom world! It made sense, because I knew what the DP style looked like, and I certainly looked like a DP character, then.

I was stuck between feeling elated, and totally freaked out. I settled for crawling over to Shawn and shaking his shoulder, whispering -for whatever the reason- for him to wake up now. "Shawn, Shawn, Shawn wake up! You have got to see this, seriously," he didn't move, I sighed.

"Hey, Shawn you might want to wake up 'cause Hilary Swank, you know, from our class is in the room right now and she really wants to talk to you. Something about a make-out session," I said as seriously as I could manage.

Shawn started to stir a bit, and I couldn't decide if I should have felt angry or amused. I decided for indifference and smacked the boy outside the head. "Wake up, you dork!" I pretty much shouted into his ear.

He jolted upright, blue eyes blinking dumbly at me, "Wha' what's happenin'?" He mumbled, voice slurring with tiredness.

"Now, Shawn, don't freak out, but we're in the Danny Phantom cartoon," I told him. Praying in my mind that he wouldn't actually freak out on me, I wasn't sure what I would do if that happened. Probably just knock him out for a while.

Shawn stared at me; his cartoon face showed that he didn't believe a word of what I'd said. "Ri-i-ght," he drawled, one eyebrow arched. "Sam, did you by chance hit your head when we landed?"

I rolled my eyes and wordlessly held up my compact. Shawn froze and stared, his mouth gaping open, making him look fish like. "How- what- where-," he tried to put a coherent sentence together, but failed and looked to me pathetically.

"I don't know," I told him, snapping the compact shut. "I just woke up like this," I pointed at me, displaying my jeans and t-shirt ensemble. This had changed to look like I rolled blue paint all over the lower half of my body. And all I could see were the toes of my combat boots. I wiggled them and they wiggled along with me, so that was good. I still felt the same and could move the same, I just looked different.

"Whoa, Sam, this is so weird," Shawn said from behind me. I turned around to see him standing in front of a computer, staring with that mouth-gaping-fish face again. I hurried to his side and stopped when I came face to face with a picture of Danny's mom: Maddie. So that meant we were in cartoon Vlad's secret lab.

How bizarre.

"Hello, pumpkin," the Maddie face droned. "How are you today?"

Shawn and I shared a glance, mine annoyed, and Shawn's grossed out. "She doesn't know we're not Vlad," I said lowering my voice. I didn't know if the Maddie program was evil, but there was no reason to test that theory.

"Well, what do we do?" Shawn whispered back, brown eyebrows scrunching together. It looked really weird in cartoon form, let me tell you.

"Just ask it to tell us where the door is," I told him. "I don't know about you, but this place is way creepy." It was true the place was even sketchier than in the Real World. And I did not like the pointy glowing weapons that lined the walls of the lab. It was shivers-down-the-spine worthy.

Shawn nodded and looked back up at the computer screen, "Uh…um Maddie where is the exit to the lab?" I snickered at his expression when he said 'Maddie'.

"Right this way, dear heart," the Maddie program said, before materializing into a full body hologram in front of us. She walked to the far wall and hit a button on the wall causing a book shelf to slide to the side, revealing a hidden staircase. "Here you are my beloved."

"Thanks," Shawn said, grimacing once more. Maddie nodded and dissolved back into nothing -which was extremely weird to watch- leaving Shawn and me to stare at each other in awe. "Well, that wasn't weird," Shawn stated sarcastically.

I nodded, before saying in a robotic voice, "You're right, dear heart."

He looked at me funny, "Are you sure you didn't hit your head?"

"What? I can't make a joke?" I asked indigently, placing my hands on my hips and giving Shawn one of my notorious glares. He held up his hands in surrender and I nodded in approval. "Right, now moving on to more important matters, let's think about how we're getting out of this." I plopped down on the bottom step and set my chin on my palm.

Shawn opted to stand and began to pace, I looked down at his sneakers and shook my head when I saw how different they looked. Instead of seeing the normal creases and Nike emblem that I was used to, all I saw was blue and white. It was weird, though I think I've established that fact. "I think, we should get out of here," Shawn said, still pacing back and forth. "And by 'here' I mean this Danny Phantom world…thing."

I nodded my consent, "Yeah, but how exactly do we get out of here?" I looked around and upon not seeing the portal that would lead us home looked back to Shawn, "We got in here by that portal, right? So to get back we'll need to use the same portal."

"So, you're saying there's a portal somewhere that leads to the Real World?" Shawn said, tilting his head to the side. "And that's how Vlad got into our world, isn't it?" A look of understanding dawned on his face, just as a look of horror crossed mine.

Maybe it was just coincidence or maybe it was a horrible truth, but that idea was too familiar. I had written a story on Fanfiction about that not three months ago. Could I be responsible for the evil fruit loop that was now in the human world, and us being in the DP world? Could it be my entire fault?

"Sam, Sam! Are you okay," Shawn questioned waving a hand in front of my face. I shook my head vigorously, realizing I had been staring into space for some time and met his worried gaze.

"Uh, yeah I'm fine," I said a little too quickly. Shawn raised an eyebrow, "Seriously I'm fine," I said, more firmly.

The blond eyed me before shrugging, "So you think there really is a portal that'll take us home?"

I thought of my story and nodded. In the story I'd made the portal in the ghost zone and I knew where it was in the ghost zone. Vlad had stumbled upon it when he was searching for the key to the sarcophagus of forever sleep. So that meant all we had to do was get in there and then we'd be home free. But the ghost zone was a little dangerous, especially considering we were both humans. "Yes," I said slowly, not wanting to explain to Shawn how I knew. "I think it's in the ghost zone, actually."

Shawn looked at me with a level gaze, "Why do you say that? If it was in the ghost zone, wouldn't the portal have dumped us in there?"

I shrugged helplessly, because I really didn't know. "Maybe the portal just took us to the last place it took someone else," I guessed and Shawn nodded his agreement. I wouldn't have put it past Plasmius to jump from human world to DP world, once he figured out how. That would explain why Skulker was in the human world. That reminded me, "Oh my gosh, Skulker!"

"Where," Shawn yelped spinning around, his eyes wide.

"No, not here," I scolded standing back up. "If we left Skulker in the lab, right next to the portal, he could still come through it." Shawn paled and I added hastily, "I think we should go before that happens." Shawn nodded and we both mounted the steps leading back up into, what I hoped was a normal house.

A few moments of walking in darkness and we were out, back into an amazingly fancy study. It looked just like the one in the human world, except with cartoon style. "Whoa, déjà vu," Shawn muttered standing in the middle of the room.

"Yeah, Vlad's not very original is he?" I asked coming up beside him.

"Guess not."

We looked around at the room for a moment longer before heading towards the door and pushing it open. If I remembered correctly there would be suits of armor outside the door. We opened the door and sure enough, there were the suits. So that meant we really were in Vlad's mansion.

I didn't know if I should have felt happy or depressed at that fact.

"Which way," Shawn asked looking left and right, down the two hallways.

"Um…left?" I guessed with a shrug. Left was usually good, so I set off down the hallway running my hands along the walls just to feel the texture. But the smooth, cool wood couldn't stop me from thinking about the story; my story. Was I really responsible?

No, there was no way. It didn't even make sense for it to be my fault. Until I found some hard core evidence I wasn't going to blame myself. I nodded in steely resolve, if I found evidence then I'd take the blame, but until then it was not my fault. Not my fault, the words felt soothing to think and I repeated it again.

I must have said it out loud because I felt Shawn looking at me. That look that just screamed, 'are you talking to those little voices in your head again?' "Sam are you okay?" he asked, the eyebrow raising again.

"Oh, me yeah I'm great," I said eyeing him as well. Just daring him to say otherwise. We walked in silence for a few more minutes, and by walk I meant strolled around aimlessly because we were hopelessly lost after five minutes of 'walking.' I sighed and pounded the wall with my fist, "We are so lost," I shouted.

"Hey, Sam it's alright," Shawn said holding his hands up. He looked like he wanted to approach me but something was holding him back.

I turned on him, "How is this alright, Shawn," I shouted furiously, gesturing to our surroundings.

He leveled a steady gaze at me, though his cheeks were tinged red, "At least we're together." My anger deflated and I slumped my shoulders; he was right at least I wasn't lost here alone. That would have been much worse.

Which reminded me.

"Shawn, back there with Skulker, why did you step in front of me? If he'd gotten the shot off, it would've killed you." I looked at him curiously and noticed that his cheeks were getting redder and he stuttered for a second, obviously searching for an answer.

"Well, Sam you see it's like this-" Shawn started, but was cut off when the air around us suddenly became ice cold and everything took on a purple shade. Shawn and I gasped when three ghostly vultures appeared through the wall in front of us.

"Hey! Vhat are yous two doing in vhere?" One of the birds exclaimed, and the other two turned on us with their very, very pointy claws.

Oh crud.

* * *

ML: Well, there's another chapter. I have had an amazing break through on this story, it's practically writing its self right now. Which reminds me, everyone say a big hello to my new beta Shining Zephyr! Everybody wave to Shining. Well other than that not much to say. Hopefully the next chapter should be soon.


	6. Chapter 6

Fanfiction Chapter 6

_The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense: Tom Clancy_

* * *

_Last Time_

"_Well, Sam you see it's like this-" Shawn started, but was cut off when the air around us suddenly became ice cold and everything took on a purple shade. Shawn and I gasped when three ghostly vultures appeared through the wall in front of us._

"_Hey! Vhat are yous two doing in vhere?" One of the birds exclaimed, and the other two turned on us with their very, very pointy claws._

_Oh crud._

* * *

DP World: 1:52 p.m.

Location: Wisconsin, Vlad's Mansion

I was frozen. Not in the literal sense of the word, but still unable to move from sheer terror. The three ghost vultures floated in front of us, their sharp talons pointed directly at our faces. Not a very comfortable feeling let me tell you.

It was strange; on the show they didn't even look dangerous. But now … they must have been taking scary pills, because I was frightened. "Oh, uh um well you see it's like this," Shawn stuttered, from his position behind me.

Yep, he was cowering behind me. Can you say pathetic?

I jumped in where Shawn left off, keeping my voice level and smooth. "We're the new cleaning people, Mr. Masters hired." The birds looked confused and I mentally smacked myself, if we were actually a cleaning crew the last thing we would be doing would be talking to a couple of ghost birds. We'd been running for our lives!

Shawn seemed to catch on because he said, his voice sounding alarmed. "Oh my gosh! Are you ghosts?!"

"Eh," the birds shared a nervous glance. "No, no we're just pets!"

"Yeah, yeah that's it, we're pets," Another bird chimed in and attempted a squawk.

I turned to Shawn and said in an awed tone, "Whoa, Masters must be really rich if he can afford glowing, talking vultures as pets." I mentally prayed that my acting skills had improved, because my fake astonished voice sounded ridiculous.

To my overwhelming relief the lead vulture spoke up a moment later, "Ves vell ve haf to go." And before we could stop them they flew intangibly through the nearest wall.

But just before they disappeared I heard one of them mutter, "If Plasmius finds out we blew our cover he's gonna kill us." Then they were gone and Shawn and I were left in silence as the room returned to a normal color.

"Well that was weird," Shawn said slowly, standing up from his 'cowering' position.

"You'd think we'd be used to it by now," I said, rubbing a hand across my face. It had been a long day, and it wasn't even over yet. I plopped down on the top of the nearest table and picked up a golden football, inspecting it thoughtfully.

"So we dodged that bullet," Shawn said, leaning against the wall across from me. "What are we gonna do now?"

"Um," the glass football slipped from my hand before crashing to the floor with a tremendous bang. I winced and looked down at it, "I don't know, those birds are gone and most likely not coming back. So I'd say we've got some time to strategize."

Shawn rolled his eyes, "Strategize," he snorted. But then his humored expression left his face and he slid down the wall with a heavy sigh, a hand placed lightly on his forehead. "How are we getting out of this, Sam?"

I frowned and jumped off the table, taking a seat beside Shawn. I touched his knee tentatively, "It's alright we'll figure it out." _Lie. _I winced inwardly and ignored the part of me that wanted to tell Shawn the truth. On the outside I may have been calm, cool and collected but on the inside I was freakin' scared. We were in another dimension for Pete's sake! A dimension that shouldn't even exist at that, no one knew where we were and there was a good possibility that Skulker would find us at any minute.

I sighed, pulling my legs up to my chest and placing my head softly on my knees. I only sat like this when I was extremely upset or scared. _What are we going to do,_ I thought miserably. We needed to get back to our universe; that was for sure but … how? I tapped my foot, another habit I had when I was thinking. We needed to find that portal, the one that would take us home, but where could it possibly be?

I lifted my head up and snapped my fingers, in the universal sign of, 'Ah-ha!' I nudged Shawn's shoulder, "Enough moping," I said when he looked up at me with his blue eyes. Strangely they looked even bluer in cartoon form. "First I want to look all over this house for that portal, if it's not here than it's probably in the ghost zone." I stood up, pulling the blond cartoon kid along with me.

"We can't just give up," I said, as Shawn and I stared into each other's eyes. "And besides it could be worse," I trailed off, unable to find something that would make our situation worse.

Shawn chuckled at my thoughtful expression and said, "We could be covered in applesauce surrounded by a group of very hungry toddlers."

I nodded grinning, "Exactly." It was then, as I looked down, that I noticed Shawn and I were holding hands. Had been for some time, and I hadn't even noticed. Like I said before: **awkward. **I discretely pulled my hands from his to run them threw my hair and I heard him cough nervously.

"So I guess we should get started, huh?" Shawn asked and I nodded.

"But let's stick together this time, who knows what's in this place," I murmured, glancing around wearily. Heck, for all we knew a giant ghost monster could jump out at us at any moment. Can you say heart attack?

We started off down the hallway to the left and began our search. It lasted at least half an hour and we'd found absolutely nothing and worse than that we ended up in the same spot where I dropped the football. I stopped, "Whoa, what just happened?" I asked catching sight of the broken glass fragments underneath the green and gold table.

"I don't know," Shawn said, glancing around. "We didn't turn or anything so, how'd we end up back here?"

I put a hand up to my forehead, already feeling a headache coming on. "Wait here for a second," I said and ran down the hallway to the right, before he could object. I sprinted for a good three minutes before a person dressed in a black and purple shirt came into my line of vision. I slid to a halt behind Shawn, staring with wide eyes.

The cartoon boy turned around slowly, his eyes also big. "We are so lost," he voiced what I was thinking.

"You have no idea," I groaned, banging my fist against my forehead. And that was when I happened to look up and spot the tiny, almost invisible hallway off to the left that I hadn't seen before. "Hey, did we go down that hallway?"

Shawn turned to where I was pointing and he shook his head, "No I don't think so."

"Then let's go," I said, hopeful that maybe there was a way out of this freaky mansion. It was really starting to give me the creeps. We started down the small hallway and after a few moments it opened up into a large foyer, and there at the end of it was a door. Sharing an excited glance with the boy beside me, I ran to the door and flung it open.

A blast of cool air hit me directly in the face and I breathed it in greedily. I was staring at a beautiful yard, complete with a gravel circle drive way and a fountain. We were outside, thank god. "Yes, freedom!" I shouted, flinging myself off the stoop and into the grass beside the fountain. Oddly enough, the grass here felt the same as the grass in our world. I rolled onto my back and sighed; nature was beautiful everywhere.

I felt Shaw flop down beside me and I rolled over, grinning, "Told you we'd get out."

He rolled his eyes and pulled his cap off, "Yeah, so what you were right. You don't have to rub it in my face."

"Well I could do the 'I'm right' dance," I pondered sarcastically.

Shawn eyed me, "Like you could stand to sound like Jazz for five seconds."

I shivered, he certainly had me there.

The boy sighed and pillowed his head on his arms, "So this is all well and good, but … what now? We didn't find the portal here so what do we do?"

I had been smiling, staring up at the cloud filled sky, watching as some cartoon birds flew over us, but when Shawn spoke I stopped smiling and turned to face him. I honestly had no idea. "Um …"

He nodded, "I thought so."

Real World: 2:12 p.m

Vladimir Bryant stepped lightly out of his long black limousine, he straightened his jacket and closed the door behind him. The man couldn't help but smirk at the cool breeze that blew around him, feeling so much different than in his own universe. He strolled, at a leisurely pace, up to his oak doors and reached for the handle, but stopped just before he touched the knob.

His door was already open.

The man narrowed his eyes and pushed it fully open, stepping into his foyer. He took a deep breath and called out, "Skulker!" His voice echoed throughout the entire castle and within moments the large metallic ghost appeared, his expression uneasy.

"Y-yes sir," The hunter ghost stammered.

"Skulker," Vlad drawled, his tone sounding lighthearted even though his eyes were shining a deep blood red. "Would you care to explain why you let someone sneak into my house?"

"Uh … well sir it- you see-" the ghost broke off when his employer's hands erupted with bright magenta energy. "It was that child! The one you told me about, I tried to stop her but they jumped through the portal and-"

"They what!" Vlad shouted, hands glowing brighter. "You let children slip past you and go to our world!"

Skulker reluctantly shook his head and closed his eyes, praying that his employer wouldn't damage his suit too badly. But after a moment of no attack the ghost opened his eyes slowly. Vlad had extinguished his ecto-energy and had a pondering look on his face. He turned away from the ghost and began to pace with his arms crossed behind his back. _I need that girl for my plans to succeed but maybe this could work to my advantage. _

"How long ago was this?" The half-ghost asked quietly, still frowning at the ground.

"A-about half an hour," Skulker said hesitantly. He watched his employer with a nervous expression, not sure why he hadn't attacked him yet.

Vlad nodded, "That means they're probably long gone by now since time works differently in our world than in this one." He frowned and said thoughtfully, "I still have a few things to work out in my plans. And I needed that girl out of the way until I completed them."

He looked up at the uneasy Skulker and smiled, "I want you to go back to our world and keep an eye on those two children, and when I signal you bring them back here."

"Sir?" Skulker said confused.

The man raised an eyebrow, "I don't believe I stuttered, Skulker. Watch the children, but don't let them see you. I want them to enjoy themselves before the end." A devious smile came across the half-ghost's face and he chuckled quietly. He had already begun to take over several companies since arriving in this new world. And it was only a matter of time before he could try his hand at bigger things. Namely: Supreme Ruler of the World. And if that plan failed he had a back up, a deliciously evil back up.

"Yes sir," Skulker sighed and drifted intangibly through the floor. Vlad watched him go, the sinister smile still adorning his face. Yes, only a matter of time until his main goal in life was fulfilled, and it was all thanks to Samantha Marshall.

DP World: 2: 36 P.M.

"Ugh, I swear to god if I see another Maddie picture I'm gonna barf." I groaned and shielded my eyes with the back of my hand. Sheesh, I mean I knew Vlad was obsessed with Maddie but this was just taking it too far. Shawn and I were digging around in the man's personal office, looking for anything that would help us find the location of Amity Park.

Yep, that was our plan. We knew there was only one person in this entire universe that could help us: Danny Phantom. If we could just find him and explain the situation I was sure he'd help us get back home. And since we had no way of getting into the Ghost Zone from Vlad's portal, the Fenton portal was the only other option left. But there was only one problem. We didn't know where Amity Park was! They never said its location on the show, but it had to be close to Wisconsin.

At least, that's what I was going with.

"Yeah I know," Shawn chuckled from behind Vlad's desk. He was digging around in the fruit loop's drawers hoping to find something, while I looked around on his computer (after Shawn hacked into it. Bet'cha can't guess what the password was … If you said Maddie Masters you are correct!) But I was finding absolutely zilch.

"Ya find anything?" I asked, clicking through another set of gross Maddie pictures. Where the heck did he get all of them anyway?

"N- wait a minute," the boy said, holding up a sheet of sticky notes. "What's the area code for Illinois?"

"217. Why?" I asked, turning around to see his triumphant grin.

He held up the sticky note and pointed to a set of phone numbers that read: Daniel Fenton – (217) 555-1221 and Maddie Fenton – (217) 555-3476. "Cause we just found out Amity Park is in Illinois."

"Sweet!" I crowed and jumped up from my seat. "Good thing Vlad's so obsessive or we might have never found it!" I sat back down and quickly typed in Amity Park, Illinois on MapChest (The Danny Phantom world's equivalent to MapQuest) and printed out the directions to the little town. Snatching up the papers, I charged out of the room.

Shawn jammed the phone numbers in his back pocket and we exited the room heading towards the garage. We'd found it along the way and it was packed full of cars of every model. Sure, we weren't old enough to drive, but this was a cartoon world, like age mattered. And I'd been practicing anyway.

Hey, I was almost old enough to get my permit. Might as well be prepared.

We entered the garage and I flicked on the switch, light flooded the cavernous room and I blinked my eyes quickly to adjust to the brightness. I'll give you a little rundown of the cars. Just in front of me was a row of convertibles in red, blue, green and silver. Off to my left was a set of large shiny hummers. To the sides there were a couple of Harleys and crotch rockets. And mixed in were a couple of normal cars: Volvos, Jaguars, Mercedes, etc.

It seriously wouldn't shock me if I turned around and saw a jetpack stuck to the wall.

"What do you wanna take?" Shawn asked, practically foaming at the mouth. I dunno, I guess it was a guy thing.

"Um, let's take the silver Volvo," I suggested. It was the most normal car there, and I really didn't want to get pulled over considering, I didn't have a license or was even old enough to drive. I saw Shawn frown and I rolled my eyes, "Please, like we're going to blend with a giant yellow hummer."

"I know, I just always wanted to ride in one of those," he mumbled.

"Sorry, but you're just gonna have to wait. Maybe Christmas," I said sarcastically and walked over to the key rack. Oh, good lord there were a lot of keys, practically a frickin' mountain of them. I scanned for the ones that said Volvo and eventually found them. "Oh good, there's only six of them." I growled and snatched the six keys of the wall and walked towards the car. Shawn appeared at my side with a bag on his back that, I was sure, hadn't been there before.

He saw me staring at him questioningly and said, "I stocked up on food in case we get hungry." He grinned as he said this and I rolled my eyes.

"Only you could think of food during a time like this."

It took six tries but we eventually found the right key and I jumped into the drivers seat, albeit a little nervously. Slowly, I stuck the key into the ignition and turned it to the side. I jumped when the engine started and hastily put my seatbelt on.

"Are you sure you wanna do this," Shawn asked me quietly.

I swallowed loudly and gripped the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white. I think I was hyperventilating, but I really couldn't tell. I was too busy freaking out. I'd never driven like this before. I took several deep breaths to calm my pounding heart, "No, no I'll be fine." I hit the garage door opener and put the car in drive, remembering everything my dad had told me about driving.

"Put your seatbelt on," I ordered Shawn and he did, looking as nervous as I felt.

_Here goes everything. _Very, very slowly I let my foot off the brake and the car rolled forward. I nearly squeaked when we rolled out into the driveway and I stopped again, trying to calm my shaking nerves. "Alright we made it outside and we're not dead yet," I whispered.

"You're doing great, Sam." Shawn said encouragingly. For some reason, I didn't feel that much better.

I let out the breath I'd been holding and opened my eyes, "Okay, I can do this, I can do this." I pressed my foot gently on the gas and the car leapt forward, the engine rumbling like rolling thunder. This thing had a lot of power. Shawn and I were pushed back into our seats and I desperately tried to control the wheel. But before I could begin to freak out, I realized that the wheel wasn't swerving to the side like it should have been. It was just sitting there, practically driving itself.

I forced myself to focus and it was easier than I first thought. The tension in my hands drained away and I found myself driving coolly and calmly. A small smile edged its way across my face, "Wow. This is easier than I thought!" I jammed the gas down and we hurtled along the country road even faster.

It was almost kinda fun. And considering there was no one else on the road I wasn't in fear of hitting somebody. Bonus!

We drove in companionable silence for a couple minutes before Shawn broke it, "I can't believe we just stole Vlad Masters car." He shook his head slowly and I could tell he was about to go into full on freak-out mode. He had a bad habit of doing that. Heh, sometimes he broke out into a cold sweat. He was a jumpy little fellow.

I rolled my eyes but kept them mostly on the road. "Chill out, Shawn. It was for a good cause and besides, he's not even in this universe, remember?" I hoped that I sounded as calm as I was trying to be, because everything I'd just said was pretty much a lie. I was sure he'd be pissed and the truth was he probably would find out we'd used his portal the moment he got home. And that was part of the reason I was driving so fast.

The sooner we got away from the fruit loop's castle the better I would feel.

"That doesn't mean he can't come back to this universe," Shawn persisted, fingering his backpack nervously.

"Just because he can doesn't mean he will," I cut in smoothly. "When is the first turn?" I asked, deliberately changing the subject.

The blond cartoon boy swallowed and pulled out the directions, "It says turn left on Buckwheat Road, then travel 5.5 miles. From there we can get on Interstate I-45."

"Cool," I said, smiling again. Shawn just frowned and pulled out a bag of cookies. He stuck one in his mouth and chewed thoughtfully, "Is it good?"

He swallowed and grinned, "Yeah. It tastes just like our food. How weird is that? It's just like home except everything has a different look to it."

"I know," I agreed, turning onto the road Shawn mentioned. I just couldn't get over how easy driving was! And I'd always kind of wanted to go on a road trip before. Not exactly like this but, hey, a road trip is a road trip, right?

"I wonder what meeting Danny is gonna be like." I mumbled, just thinking out loud. "I hope he believes us, but what are we gonna say?" That made the smile leave both our faces and I groaned. We really hadn't thought this out very well. We couldn't just walk up to him and say, 'Hey you're Danny Phantom! We're from an alternate universe and we need your help to get us home!'

Yeah, that wouldn't work.

"Hm, I didn't think about that," Shawn muttered, stuffing another cookie in his mouth. "We could just tell him."

I stared at him dryly. "Oh yeah, I'm sure he'd be perfectly willing to help two complete strangers that know about his secret that his parents don't even know about."

"Good point."

I rolled my eyes and resisted the urge to rub my temples. We needed to think of a plan, but I couldn't really think of anything while I was driving. Thankfully, Shawn saved me a lot of headache by saying, in a pondering tone, "Maybe we should try to get close to him and then once he trusts us we tell him."

Hm, that could work. But how much time would that take? And was time different in this universe than in our own. If we stayed here a week would it be a week in the Real World? Ugh, these questions were beginning to make my head ache. I sped the car up when I came to the interstate and I merged easily with the fast moving traffic. Seriously, driving was way too easy. Maybe I should get my driver's license here in this universe.

"I like your idea, Shawn. We might as well try it, it's better than nothing."

Shawn nodded tiredly and leaned his seat back, placing his arms behind his head he closed his eyes to sleep. Soon, his quiet snores filled the car and I reached for the radio, jumping slowly from station to station. Eventually I stopped on a rock station and let the cool flow of music wrap around me.

According to the directions, we wouldn't get there anytime soon and I prayed that I didn't fall asleep at the wheel. Even though I was trying to concentrate on the music and not think, I couldn't stop my mind from wandering.

I hoped my brother was alright. What would he do when he came home and I wasn't there? What were we gonna do when we got to Amity Park? What if we couldn't convince Danny to help us? What if we were stuck here forever?

I clamped down on these thoughts and reached over to turn the music up, drowning out everything but the headlights on the road.

ML: Heh, 'ello. I know it's been a while but I had a lapse in inspiration and I've been trying to write some for my other stories and this one got away from me. I'm really sorry. I'll try my best to make the next one quicker. Am I still doing okay? I feel like I'm kinda stickin' it up a bit.


End file.
